This paper analyses Amsterdam’s Startup-in-Residence (SiR) programme as new type of policy to engage startups in the development of urban innovation through a challenge-based public procurement of innovation (PPI) process. The programme is being mimicked by other cities and government agencies, but so far there has not been a rigorous, theoretically-informed analysis of the approach. In this paper, we specify and focus on the role of city-based, public-affiliated intermediaries as initiators, moderators and influencers of conversations between startups and the local government. The main contribution of SiR as a PPI intermediation programme has been to launch new types of fruitful conversations on several levels, that lead to institutional innovations rather than direct solutions for urban problems or startup development. In this sense, SiR fulfils a role inquiring and ascribing urban challenges with values and notions of “worth” that preceded and shaped innovation directions. We also suggest that engaging startups is effective for only a limited bandwidth urban challenges; different types of intermediation are required to foster collaborative innovation in more complex settings.
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We investigate circular entrepreneurial ecosystems that support circular startups and innovation. We argue that circular entrepreneurial ecosystems are constellations of existing entrepreneurial ecosystems that extend across geographies and sectors, requiring ecosystem intermediaries to bridge institutional environments and provide access to actors and resources. Focusing on the emerging circular transition in the textiles and apparel industry, we gathered data from in-depth interviews, field observations, and archival documentation over a seven--year period. Our findings show that circular entrepreneurial ecosystems are purposefully intermediated at a meta level, generating nested and distributed ecosystems. To elucidate circular ecosystem intermediation, we devised a model of system level 5 intermediation that extends the conceptualization of ecologies of system intermediation across geographic and sector boundaries. Our study contributes to the literatures on circular entrepreneurship, circular ecosystems, and ecosystem intermediation as well as provides practical implications for practitioners and policy makers.
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Lawmakers as representatives of the people should resist the anti-competitive proposals of the banking sector and embrace a vision of the digital euro that serves the collective interests of Europeans, Dr Martijn van der Linden and Vicky Van Eyck write. The influence of the banking lobby on policymakers risks undermining the digital euro's potential. Lawmakers as representatives of the people should resist the anticompetitive proposals of the banking sector and embrace a vision of the digital euro that serves the collective interests of Europeans. This means that the digital euro must be attractive, accessible and beneficial to all. The deliberation process must be free from the disproportionate influence of an industry that has much to lose from a level playing field for payment services and financial intermediation.
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