An identified limitation of entrepreneurial ecosystem studies is that they often focus on the components of entrepreneurial ecosystems and not the relationships between the components. To address this issue, it has been argued that entrepreneurial ecosystems should be analysed using complex adaptive systems theory.

Social entrepreneurs are increasingly taking a place-based, solution ecosystem approach to address complex wicked problems. A solution ecosystem, for a particular wicked problem and geographical community, consists of all the initiatives that are addressing any of the interdependent causal factors that underpin the wicked problem and all of the organisations that are partnering on those initiatives. While solution ecosystems contain initiative components in the same manner that entrepreneurial ecosystems do, they differ from entrepreneurial ecosystems in that they focus on the relationships between the components and they are informed by complex adaptive systems theory.

This webinar will demonstrate how an online tool that has been designed to assist emergence within solution ecosystems can also be used to assist emergence within entrepreneurial ecosystems that are inclusive of social enterprises. It will be shown that by combining solution and entrepreneurial ecosystems that are informed by complex adaptive systems theory, the conditions can be created that support the emergence of social entrepreneurial places that are capable of addressing societies most pressing problems.