Startup ecosystems play a vital role in driving innovation, job creation, and economic growth. The 2023 Global Startup Ecosystem Report (GSER) ranks Tunisia fourth among emerging ecosystems in the MENA region. According to the same report, Tunisia managed to generate an ecosystem value of $120,292,413 between July 1, 2020, and December 31, 2022, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.35% compared to the 2018-2020 period. Despite this rise, the Tunisian startup ecosystem is marked by pronounced regional disparities. While national policy frameworks like the Startup Act have successfully catalyzed a dynamic startup culture, integrating these top-down initiatives with regional ecosystems—where unmet needs and latent opportunities persist— remains a critical opportunity to promote more balanced and inclusive socioeconomic development. Although, regional ecosystems exhibit distinct operational dynamics, the fundamental challenges faced by startups demonstrate notable commonalities across contexts. Numerous initiatives have emerged across regions to support startup founders by offering customized services developed through multi-stakeholder collaboration. This participatory approach facilitates value co-creation by aligning service offerings with founder needs while leveraging diverse stakeholder expertise. This study examines value co-creation dynamics within Tunisia's startup ecosystem through semi-structured interviews with key regional actors, including project managers, coordinators, and incubator managers. Using a structured three-phase methodological framework based on the Mic-Mac program for structural analysis, we identify and analyze stakeholders' perceived drivers of effective value co-creation. This approach iteratively integrates individual perspectives with collective synthesis to construct a comprehensive cognitive map of the ecosystem. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems by demonstrating how nascent systems can overcome resource limitations through strategic value co-creation. The research provides both theoretical insights into ecosystem emergence and practical implications for policymakers seeking to foster entrepreneurial development in resource-constrained environments.

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Keywords: Start-up ecosystems, SD Logic , value co-creation, cognitive mapping.