Digital Entrepreneurship: Impact on Business and Society PDF
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Future of Business and Finance Mariusz Soltanifar Mathew Hughes Lutz Göcke Editors Digital Entrepreneurship Impact on Business and Society Future of Business and Finance TheFutureofBusinessandFinancebookseriesfeaturesprofessionalworksaimed at defining, describing and charting the future trends in these fields. The focus is mainly on strategic directions, technological advances, challenges and solutions which may affect the way we do business tomorrow, including the future of sustainabilityandgovernancepractices.Mainlywrittenbypractitioners,consultants and academic thinkers, the books are intended to spark and inform further discussions and developments. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16360 (cid:1) (cid:1) Mariusz Soltanifar Mathew Hughes Lutz Göcke Editors Digital Entrepreneurship Impact on Business and Society 123 Editors Mariusz Soltanifar Mathew Hughes Hanze University of AppliedSciences LoughboroughUniversity International Business School Schoolof Business andEconomics Groningen,The Netherlands Loughborough,Leicestershire, UK Open University Faculty of Management Heerlen,The Netherlands LutzGöcke Nordhausen University of AppliedSciences Chairof Digital Management Nordhausen, Germany ISSN 2662-2467 ISSN 2662-2475 (electronic) Futureof Business andFinance ISBN978-3-030-53913-9 ISBN978-3-030-53914-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53914-6 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2021.Thisbookisanopenaccesspublication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adap- tation,distributionandreproductioninanymediumorformat,aslongasyougiveappropriatecreditto the originalauthor(s)and the source, providealink tothe CreativeCommonslicense andindicate if changesweremade. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons license,unlessindicatedotherwiseinacreditlinetothematerial.Ifmaterialisnotincludedinthebook’s CreativeCommonslicenseandyourintendeduseisnotpermittedbystatutoryregulationorexceedsthe permitteduse,youwillneedtoobtainpermissiondirectlyfromthecopyrightholder. Theuse ofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc. inthis publi- cationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromthe relevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained hereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregard tojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland To all the digital entrepreneurs out there, who are driven to put a dent in the universe! Foreword In the digital age, entrepreneurship is now more in demand than ever before. However, digital entrepreneurship is not limited to holding online meetings, paperless office or communication on social media. Rather, it must be seen as a holistic approach to thinking that encompasses all processes of an organisation, including communication and service provision. If we succeed in “thinking digi- tally”, such as integrating digital process support at all levels, we can experience long-term success and keep uprising competitors at bay. Data,informationandknowledgearethenewfactorsofsuccessthatleadtonew marketopportunitiesandbusinessmodelsthroughtheirintelligentcombinationand networking with operational performance and service provision. This ranges from platform economics to support systems, as well as the use of new technologies to make processes more effective and elegant. It is precisely the exploration of promising opportunities and the creation of unique ideas that offer digital entre- preneursthepotentialtosuccessfullydeveloptheirbusiness.Thedesignofbusiness models, the planning of the architecture of software and hardware components, as well as the storage of individual data, information and knowledge components, form the core of the new digital entrepreneurial approach. There has been much discussion of agility, disruptive processes and the con- stantly increasing speed of market developments. Therefore, the digital entrepre- neurial personality must maintain the following competencies: (cid:129) Creativity, organisational skills and a feel for market opportunities (cid:129) Strong knowledge of the technical requirements and the competitive environment (cid:129) Couragetoapplytheprocessofcreativedestructiontotheirownbusinessorits processes at any time. Indoingso,newideasandtheirimplementationmustbekeptinview,aswellas one’s own service offerings, and the way they are created. In particular, the demands on quality, efficiency and speed of the processes force entrepreneurship when updating and revising internal processes. AttheUniversityofAppliedSciences,Nordhausen,wehaveinitiatedtwomajor developments on our path to an entrepreneurial university and to qualify our stu- dents as digital entrepreneurs. We have developed a Bachelor of Arts in Digital vii viii Foreword ProductManagementtoenablestudentstoidentifymarketopportunitiesfordigital products and realise these products together with software engineers. In addition, we created an incubation program to boost early stage start-up founders at our university with financial and consultative support. This book aims to provide an overview of the main factors influencing digital entrepreneurshipandwillbeofvalueforanydigitalentrepreneur.Theauthorshave considered the determining factors for digital business, aspects of corporate entrepreneurship and legal framework conditions. A characteristic feature of these observations is that the digital entrepreneur is consistently placed at the centre of attention. We will leverage the created content in our courses of studies as well as our entrepreneurial programs to create entrepreneurial personalities. Prof. Dr. Jörg Wagner President of the University of Applied Sciences Nordhausen Nordhausen, Germany Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge each author who has contributed to this book. We recognisethehardworkyoudotosupportdigitalentrepreneurshipinyourrolesat universities and companies, and we thank you for the time and effort spent on writing your respective chapters. ThankstoJörgWagneroftheUniversityofAppliedSciences,Nordhausen,and theThuringianstategovernmentinGermanyforthegenerousfundingtoenablethe openaccesspublishingofthisbook.Thedevelopedthoughtsareofopenaccessto all entrepreneurs and their teams globally. We would like to express our gratitude to our participating companies for the cases discussed in this book. Many have provided great insights and opened their resources to develop the cases. Wealsothankeveryonewhohastrustedusinthequalityofourworkbywriting an endorsement for this book. We also thank Stefan Hertanu, Suzan Snijder, Siyuan Sun, and Ivaylo Tenev, the International Business School students of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen, The Netherlands for assisting in the dissemination process of the book and communicating its value to our readers. ix Introduction Digital entrepreneurship is reshaping business and communication with cloud services, augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence and blockchains as someofthetechnologiesthatcompriseourincreasinglydigitisedworld.Thisbook examines these and other digital developments for their impact on entrepreneur- ship. In our understanding, digital entrepreneurship focuses on leveraging digital technologies or digital business models to explore and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities. Our quest in this book is to shed new light on digital entrepreneur- ship, understand the critical factors in successful digital entrepreneurship and understand thecontextsensitivityof digital entrepreneurship efforts,including,but notrestrictedto,theindividual,thefirmandtheinternationalbusinesscontexts.To achievetheseelements,thisbookcontainscontributionsfromscholarsfromallover theworld, consistent withhow digitalentrepreneurshipbringsglobalchallengesto entrepreneurs, firms, public institutions and governments. Acornerstoneofourbookistheefforttobridgethetheory–practicedivide.Each of the chapters provides two contributions: First, each chapter is embedded in theory and literature on the phenomenon of interest; second, each chapter contains digital entrepreneurship vignettes as insightful cases into digital entrepreneurship practice. Each chapter strives to connect research and practice with cases, insights and tools. Akeycomponentofdigitalentrepreneurshipishowdigitaltechnologiesandthe processofdigitisationtransformhowentrepreneurscancreatenewsourcesofvalue and wealth. However, digitalisation is also transforming what it means to be entrepreneurial and the skills and capabilities required. Our further objective with this publication is to shed light on the entrepreneurial process and its content in various digital contexts. Theentireentrepreneurialprocesscanfocusonadigitalventureasthecontentof anentrepreneurialjourney.Someoftheauthorsinthisbookinvestigatetheimpact oftechnologies,suchasartificialintelligence,distributedledgertechnologiesorthe industrialInternetofthings,onneworestablishedbusinessmodels.Othersdiscuss theinfluenceofdigitaltechnologiesontheentrepreneurialprocessofgeneratingan ideaorleveragingdigitaloptionstofinancetheentrepreneurialjourney.Throughout the entrepreneurial process, we believe that a deep understanding of digital cre- ativity can help an entrepreneur create the right ideas at the right time. xi
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