Hamburg's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and the Next Media Initiative: Public Policy Towards Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship, more specifically the formation of tech startups, is often attributed with economic growth and job creation due to their high-growth potential by many policy makers around the world. This link is widely debated in scientific literature, which does not necessarily seem to inform public policy. The City of Hamburg established a Next Media Initiative, focusing on media and IT industry related innovation to nurture the future development of this industry cluster with the help of high-growth ventures. This master thesis explores the composition of Hamburg's entrepreneurial ecosystem, local government efforts to facilitate its development and the (dis)connect between municipal innovation policy and academic literature.