TY - THES A1 - Todorova, Janet T1 - The Tech Startup Ecosystems in Berlin and Sofia: Alternative Scenarios for Collaboration N2 - Today tech entrepreneurship is a driving force for Europe's economic growth. However, Europe is lagging behind the US economy, where startup ecosystems are thriving for decades, such as the Silicon Valley. One reason for that is that Europe comprises of many small markets, each with different legislation and language, which creates barriers for local startups to scale fast. The European startup ecosystem is very fragmented and in order to be competitive on the global markets, collaboration between different startup cities is necessary to develop. The purpose of this study is to explore the collaboration between the two tech startup ecosystems in Berlin (Germany) and Sofia (Bulgaria). The approach is to measure and analyse the current collaboration of entrepreneurs and investors from both ecosystems by collecting quantitative data about their collaboration behaviour. Data is collected via an online survey among participants from both ecosystems. Then, the data is used to identify which pairs of actors are most likely to become the catalysts of collaboration in the next 5 years. Based on that, three alternative scenarios for the future collaboration between Berlin and Sofia are designed. Scenario 1 assumes the collaboration between entrepreneurs from both ecosystems will grow fast and stimulate the collaboration between other actors from Berlin and Sofia. Scenario 2 identifies there is an established collaborative relationship between investors from Berlin and investors from Sofia. Based on that, the prediction is that in the long term many co-investments will occur, and this will generally encourage other actors from the two cities to collaborate. Scenario 3 is based on the assumption that Sofia will position itself as a seed-stage startup hub. The low cost of living and low competition for seed capital can eventually attract Berlin entrepreneurs to collaborate more with Sofia investors. KW - Startup KW - European economy KW - Tech innovation KW - Economic growth KW - Entrepreneurship Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:0298-opus4-12087 N1 - Die Studierende hat ihre Masterarbeit selbst hochgeladen. Das Einverständnis zur Veröffentlichung liegt damit automatisch vor. The student has uploaded her master thesis herself. This automatically gives consent for the publication. ER -