Community-anchored Pentahelix: Regional digital startup ecosystems

Informal community organizations in emerging economies face a paradox: lacking formal authority and resources, yet becoming essential anchors for digital startup ecosystems. This study examines that paradox through Malang Raya’s ecosystem, showing how STASION, a community-led organization without formal mandates, achieved normative legitimacy to anchor regional innovation. Through institutional and stakeholder theory, we show that community actors in resource-constrained regions operationalize gotong royong (Indonesian mutual cooperation) to bridge institutional voids, offset weak government urgency, and translate national programs into locally grounded practices. Using a qualitative case study, we analyzed 12 stakeholders across five Pentahelix groups in Indonesia’s National 1000 Digital Startups Movement. Findings reveal a regional-adapted Pentahelix model with three dominant pillars government, academia, and community; and industry and media in supporting roles. Rather than the balanced five-stakeholder engagement idealized in metropolitan contexts, regional success depends on community-mediated institutional translation, trust-based resource-sharing, and cultural alignment. Six critical success factors emerged: power distribution, trust relationships, regional readiness, resource availability, challenge navigation, and opportunity exploitation. This finding, theorised here as paradoxical compensation, repositions community from supporting pillar to compensatory mechanism, challenging traditional Pentahelix assumptions and offering strategic guidance for policymakers designing non-metropolitan innovation programs across Southeast Asia.