there are a lot of reports in Pubmed showing very strong effects of the ECM on the cells.
Especially in the brain there are a number of reports showing that the ECM significantly infulences synapse function and plasticity.
e.g.:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19483686
Similarly the ECM affects the properties of tumor cells
e.g.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22923691
The ECM interacts with a lot of cellular proteins and triggers a lot of intracellular signalling pathways. Thus it is highly unlikely that the surounding of the cells does not influence its function.