The governance of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute: Towards a restructuring of its highest governing body?

Abstract

The purpose of an entrepreneurship is to build and scale a sustainable business model through an enterprise. The lack of tangible and intangible resources is often at this very early stage. According to previous studies, new ventures could overcome the lack of resources -key to their success- forming relationships with partners (networking) through open innovation (OI) processes. However, the structure of each network affects their own processes and outcomes; the innovation processes and the network structure mutually shape each other. Opening up the innovation process implies the involvement of startups in relationships with different typologies of actors: Incubators, Large corporations, Higher education institutions, among others. Understanding the role, relation, position and power of each actor in the ecosystem allow us identify its network position which is critical for resource access.
In order to determine the level of ecosystem maturity and its interactions is necessarily to analyze the entrepreneurship context. According to the Ecuadorian Entrepreneurship Profile (GEM, 2019) Ecuador has a strong position related to physical infrastructure, cultural and social norms and entrepreneurial education at post-school stage comparing with the media of the World. However, indicators like entrepreneurial finances, taxes and bureaucracy, government support, R&D transfer and entrepreneurship programs are quite far from the global average.
Utilizing the newly publish Ecuadorian Organic Law for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Official Registry No. 151, 2020) which aims to provide a normative framework that encourages the entrepreneurship, innovation and technological development this article analyzes startup’s network centrality elements focusing on:
Main actors and the nature of these relations;
Institutions which hold the central position in the network;
Partnerships and networks to support innovation processes and outcomes;
Financial mechanisms to support entrepreneurship and innovation; and,
Education to carry out partnerships.
As a consecuence, the main actor determined by law is CONEIN as a ruling body and the Entrepreneurship Advisory Council. The presence of individual entrepreneurs is scarce. Although, CONEIN holds the central position in the network, in that aspect is a vast opportunity for Entrepreneurship Advisory Council to boost participation among private sector members and be a higher influence in the public policy making. By law, partnerships and networks to support innovation processes and outcomes are not clear, but entrepreneurs acquire greater centrality in the ecosystem than before, which could privilege their access to resources and knowledge especially from Higher education institutions.
Financial mechanisms to support entrepreneurship and innovation are established, but will be necessary to allocate budget for this instrument, as well as for the entrepreneurship national strategy. The private investment is mentioned, nevertheless deep legal reforms are demanded in order to incentive its presence. Education regulation is incorporated in the law to carry out entrepreneurship and innovation. In the hereafter, will be necessary to incorporate partnership and financial education programs.
The conception of adequate articulated programs for entrepreneurship, management, research and development, transfer, R&D funding, networking and human capital strengthen could favor open innovation. However, other instruments are necessary in terms of information release, taxability, bureaucracy, labor and direct investment that allows open innovation appear. The purpose of the Government is key to ensure governance, rule of law, and accountability of itself and entrepreneurship actors to ensure stability and economic prosperity.

KEY WORDS: Entrepreneurship, open innovation, networking, networking structures, performance, rule of law.

JEL CODE: K, L25, L 26