ENTREPRENEURIAL SOFT SKILLS IN AN INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM: COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES AND MOTIVATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF SUCCESS

<jats:p>Under conditions of rapid technological transformation, market volatility, and high information asymmetry, the success of innovative ventures increasingly depends on individual behavioral capabilities rather than solely on technical knowledge. In modern innovation ecosystems, founders must navigate complex networks, engaging simultaneously with venture investors, prospective partners, multi-disciplinary internal teams, and early adopters. While traditional managerial frameworks emphasize hard skills, the dynamic nature of early-stage entrepreneurship demands an integrated understanding of how personal resilience and internal motivation translate into adaptive inter-organizational communication. This paper addresses the theoretical gap regarding the alignment between an entrepreneur's internal self-regulation and external stakeholder management. Using a systemic and interdisciplinary synthesis that incorporates insights from institutional economics, entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, organizational psychology, and behavioral economics, the study structures entrepreneurial soft skills into two interrelated contours covering internal motivational-psychological aspects and external communicative-behavioral actions. The conceptual discussion focuses on detailing four targeted communication strategies adapted to distinct ecosystem actors, including a partnership-adaptive strategy for long-term value chains, an investment-signaling strategy designed to reduce information asymmetry for venture capitalists, a team-stimulating strategy aimed at establishing psychological safety and constructive dissent, and a market-validation strategy oriented toward active listening and rapid feedback integration. Furthermore, the paper explores the evolutionary shifts in soft-skill priorities across the four main phases of the innovation project life cycle from idea generation to commercial scaling. It outlines a two-contour adaptation algorithm that models how external crisis impulses such as investor rejection or market shocks are processed through internal cognitive reframing before executing modified communication actions within the ecosystem.</jats:p>