We take a long durée perspective (Braudel 1958) to – (a) study the evolution of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EE) and (b) understand what makes some of them resilient over time (Roundy, Brockman, and Bradshaw 2017). We undertake to construct a thick and rich historical narrative of how the Bangalore EE has shaped over the decades since
independence. Once the narrative is constructed, we use it as a case study to investigate its resilience defined as “the degree to which an EE can continuously recover from and adapt to exogenous shocks and endogenous pressures” (Cadanesso, Pickett, & Grove, 2006). We adopt a systemic view of entrepreneurship (Dubini 1989) that suggests the
importance of the infrastructure for entrepreneurship and the co-evolution of business and administration (Murmann 2003) where “foxes are likely to hunt better if they hunt in packs” across policy, civic and private sectors (Van de Ven 1993). We intend to explore if there is a pattern to the rise and fall of entrepreneurial ventures within the ecosystem
across sectors and geographic sub-divisions of the city and if an EE possesses an identity and image for itself with which the entrepreneurs and other stakeholders identify (Albert and Whetten 1985; Ashforth and Mael 1989).