Latin America represents to many authors and experts on business ecosystem construction, an emergent sector. Reports on innovation and entrepreneurship sets this region as one of the least developed on a global scale, but what results interesting is that there are many emerging businesses, which are not having the proper support or sponsorship from competent entities. Most of the available data on this topic is mostly based on countries where the existence of a business ecosystem is evident. What happens with the least developed sector of Latin America: Central America?

To point out the current scene on innovation and entrepreneurship in Central America (as it results a broad region to study), Nicaragua was taken as a sample for this study as recent reports demonstrate the annual GDP investment on R&D is less than 1% and SME’s grow at an accelerated pace. Literature review states the importance of a platform strategy to apply it to the construction of a business ecosystem is a sector or region wants to be competitive on local, regional or global markets.

The purpose of this research is to identify the existence of an established business ecosystem in Nicaragua as well as the identification of key stakeholders, challenges to overcome, and current measures to enhance the creation of an innovation and entrepreneurship platform. Also, will propose recommendations for a platform strategy that can be taken into account to regulate on how participants of business ecosystems in Nicaragua can collaborate to enhance its competitiveness in the market.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3
LIST OF FIGURES 6
LIST OF TABLES 6
ABBREVIATION DICTIONARY 7
1 INTRODUCTION 8
1.1 INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN NICARAGUA 8
1.2 GEDI 14 “PILLARS” OF A HEALTHY ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM 11
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 13
2.1 UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM 13
2.2 BUSINESS ECOSYSTEM LIFECYCLE AND PLATFORM STRATEGY 15
2.3 KEYS OF ECOSYSTEM ADVANTAGES 16
2.4 THREE KEYS SCALES OF INNOVATION 18
2.5 ATTRIBUTES OF A SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM 19
2.6 UNIVERSITY – INDUSTRY COLLABORATION 20
3 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY 22
3.1 OBJECTIVES 22
3.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23
3.2.1 RESEARCH DESIGN: THE CASE STUDY 24
3.2.2 RESEARCH PROCESS 26
3.2.3 UNIT OF ANALYSIS AND NUMBER OF CASES 27
3.2.4 SAMPLING STRATEGY 29
3.2.5 DATA ANALYSIS 30
3.2.6 RESEARCH QUALITY 30
3.2.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 31
4 CASE STUDIES 31
4.1 CASE A: AGRICULTURAL SME 32
4.2 CASE B: STARTUP IN AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY 34
4.3 CASE C: ICT SME 36
4.4 CASE D: STARTUP IN ICT 37
4.5 CASE E: LOCAL FUNDING INSTITUTION 38
4.6 CASE F: FOREIGN CAPITAL FUNDING INSTITUTION 39
4.7 CASE G: EDUCATION 40
5 CROSS-CASE ANALYSIS 42
5.1 Poor knowledge of business ecosystem lifecycle applied to innovation and entrepreneurship. 42
5.2 Disorganized strategy to merge players, protect ideas and encourage new businesses growth. 44
5.3 Lack of follow-up to companies after their establishment. 45
5.4 Nicaragua: a relatively new player on UIC. 47
6 CONCLUSIONS 48
6.1 Contributions 48
6.2 Limitations and future research 49
7 REFERENCES 50
8 APPENDIX 53

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