Orchestrating Digital Entrepreneurial Pathways: The Recursive Interplay of Code and Place

This study investigates the interplay between digital platforms' affordances and industrial clusters' spatial affordances in shaping entrepreneurial processes and outcomes. We propose that ventures' ability to orchestrate and align digital platforms' efficiencies with local clusters' rich networks influences their capacity for opportunity recognition, value proposition development, and scaling. Our mixed-methods approach combines in-depth case studies of 10 digital ventures with panel data analysis of 500 ventures over a 5-year period. We employ hierarchical linear modeling to examine the impact of affordance actualization on venture outcomes, and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to uncover equifinal configurations of affordance orchestration. Our findings elucidate the complex interplay of technological possibilities and institutional embeddedness underlying digital entrepreneurship, contributing to theories of affordances, innovation ecosystems, and combinatorial advantage. This study offers novel insights into how the dynamic alignment of digital and spatial affordances reshapes entrepreneurial action across various stages of venture development.