  The number, importance, and popularity of rankings measuring innovation
performance and the strength and resources of ecosystems that provide its
spatial framework are on an increasing trend globally. In addition to
influencing the specific decisions taken by economic actors, these rankings
significantly impact the development of innovation-related policies at
regional, national, and international levels. The importance of startup
ecosystems is proven by the growing scientific interest, which is demonstrated
by the increasing number of related scientific articles. The concept of the
startup ecosystem is a relatively new category, the application of which in
everyday and scientific life has been gaining ground since the end of the
2000s. In parallel, of course, the demand for measurability and comparability
has emerged among decision-makers and scholars. This demand is met by startup
ecosystem rankings, which now measure and rank the performance of individual
ecosystems on a continental and global scale. However, while the number of
scientific publications examining rankings related to higher education,
economic performance, or even innovation, can be measured in the order of
thousands, scientific research has so far rarely or tangentially addressed the
rankings of startup ecosystems. This study and the related research intend to
fill this gap by presenting and analysing the characteristics of global
rankings and identifying possible future research directions.
