Entrepreneurial space and the freedom for entrepreneurship - 7 April 2021

About Wadid Lamine’s research

The space industry is extremely innovative and highly regulated. It is also dominated by few powerful incumbent firms. This research examines how entrepreneurship in the space industry is shaped by institutions, and what this implies for the freedom to be entrepreneurial. Wadid Lamine and colleagues investigate this question in the European context.

They found that institutions and policies had, in effect, shrunk the entrepreneurial field, leaving little room for enterprise. However, they found that while the industrial context and institutions had completely pushed entrepreneurship out of the upstream segments it flourished in the margins of this industry. The upstream segment is not at all entrepreneurial; downstream is the entrepreneurial milieu of the space industry. Conceptualizing from this study, the authors propose the institutions create an “entrepreneurial space.” Theoretically, they explain how this concept of an entrepreneurial space can be usefully applied in other contexts.

About Wadid Lamine

Dr. Lamine is an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa (Canada). His research interests include technology entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial networks and incubation support mechanisms.

He has published several books, book chapters and research articles in leading academic journals such as Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Small Business Economics, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Technovation, Journal of Technology Transfer and Industrial Marketing Management.