Digital platforms and transformational entrepreneurship during the COVID-19 crisis

There has been an increased usage and popularity of digital platforms during the COVID-19 crisis. This has resulted in many new types of digital platforms emerging that are tied to specific localities and based on emergent needs. This article presents the results of a study on the ClickforVic digital platform that was started during the first 2020 lockdown in Melbourne, Australia as a way for country farmers to connect with urban consumers. The study is premised on transformational entrepreneurship theory that enables a focus on the societal changes that have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic. A semi-structured in-depth interview approach was utilised to understand how farm entrepreneurs perceived the digital platform and how this contributed to transformational entrepreneurship outcomes. The study is amongst the first to incorporate a digital platform, farm entrepreneurship, transformational entrepreneurship and COVID-19 perspective. The findings suggest that farm entrepreneurs are driven by financial, social and community goals during a crisis that influences their usage of digital platforms. As a consequence, the findings contribute to managerial practice and policy debate by highlighting the way digital platforms can be used in times of crisis to produce transformational entrepreneurship outcomes.     

Digital innovation and entrepreneurship transformation through open data hackathons: Design strategies for successful start-up settings

The organization of open data hackathons or digital innovation competitions is a significant opportunity for nascent entrepreneurs to collaborate with external partners, promote new ideas and extend their applications to a new start-up. Prior studies have not thoroughly compared the execution of different strategies in many hackathons or digital innovation competitions. They only focus on the actions that the organizers of a specific hackathon have implemented or the challenges they have faced. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine goals and design strategies that contribute to the successful execution of open data hackathons and innovation competitions. Six case studies of open data hackathons and innovation competitions held between 2014 and 2018 in Thessaloniki have been explored to understand the co-ordination between the multiple stakeholders of these events and improve the execution of open data hackathons and innovation competitions. The outcomes indicate that the most critical design strategy was the involvement of mentors in the event and the level of support provided to nascent entrepreneurs to accelerate their creativity, develop applications and launch their prototypes on the market.     

Open data: Quality over quantity

Open data aims to unlock the innovation potential of businesses, governments, and entrepreneurs, yet it also harbours significant challenges for its effective use. While numerous innovation successes exist that are based on the open data paradigm, there is uncertainty over the data quality of such datasets. This data quality uncertainty is a threat to the value that can be generated from such data. Data quality has been studied extensively over many decades and many approaches to data quality management have been proposed. However, these approaches are typically based on datasets internal to organizations, with known metadata, and domain knowledge of the data semantics. Open data, on the other hand, are often unfamiliar to the user and may lack metadata. The aim of this research note is to outline the challenges in dealing with data quality of open datasets, and to set an agenda for future research to address this risk to deriving value from open data investments.     

欧盟包容性创业政策研究及借鉴

借鉴欧盟促进不同边缘群体创业的多维举措,推进中国"双创"活动开展。调研欧盟面向妇女、老年人、移民群体的创业激励举措,研究发现欧盟及其成员国通过法律保障、促进信息交换、设立专门孵化器、破除资金壁垒等方式,有效促进了边缘群体企业家的产生。吸取欧盟的先进经验,结合实际提出建议如下:中国应设立专门面向边缘群体的创业孵化器或前孵化器;建立专门面向边缘群体的公益性创业教育平台;加强面向边缘群体的创业经验分享和创业精神培养;为老年人创业提供资金支持,并促进代际创业交流。     

The promise of digital technologies for sustainable entrepreneurship: A systematic literature review and research agenda

Research on sustainable entrepreneurship increasingly recognizes the transformative potential of digital technologies to mitigate and counteract grand environmental and social challenges through entrepreneurial action. However, this emerging field of research, referred to as digital sustainable entrepreneurship, is currently dispersed and fragmented and lacks the consolidated foundation to progress further. This article further establishes this nascent stream by conducting a systematic literature review offering two main contributions. First, common themes are derived from the literature (i.e., enabling value for society and environment, stakeholder inclusion, venture viability, and entrepreneurial individuals) to unravel the field's current state. Second, previous work is discussed and integrated by applying a business model perspective. Specifically, the article offers a framework that contributes to the role of business models for merging sustainability and digital technologies, reconceptualizes digital technologies as business model actors, and further develops the entrepreneur-business model nexus. Based on this, we present a comprehensive and actionable research agenda and practical implications.     

Motives for participation in Internet innovation intermediary platforms

Internet innovation intermediaries are the key role of an organization that affects on innovation processes and driving a potential contributor to economic development. Therefore, understanding what are the main motivations that drive the participation of users into these innovation intermediaries is increasingly relevant. This is why this paper aims to develop an understanding on this matter with UTAUT framework in order to examine the effects of major factors on behavioral intention and actual use of Internet innovation intermediaries and topic discussions. An empirical study was conducted in 10 Internet innovation intermediary platforms using a survey instrument targeting 735 respondents and mainly from China and Taiwan. The findings show that there is a significant relationship between facilitating conditions and usage behavior proving that intermediaries can influence the usage of Internet innovation intermediary platforms. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed, offering recommendations and future research directions.     

公司企业家精神、战略联盟对创新的影响研究

 企业家精神是企业持续发展、创造竞争优势的推动力。公司企业家精神主要体现在公司的创新与风险创业等行为上。企业必须识别和利用市场机遇然后才能实施创新。企业自身难以识别和利用市场机遇时,联盟是有效的弥补方式。根据知识应用的不同,将联盟划分为探索性和应用性两种类型。通过案例研究,分析了企业的内部资源和外部的技术环境对联盟类型选取的影响。     

创业孵化平台价值共创、动态能力与生态优势

创业孵化平台形成了以平台企业主导的创业生态优势,现有文献对其生态优势形成过程尚无有力解释。本文通过小米“投资+孵化”事件的探索性案例分析,以动态能力视角探究创业孵化平台价值共创对生态优势的影响机理。研究发现：创业孵化平台生态优势的影响机理遵循“价值共创-动态能力-生态优势”解释逻辑;它经历了三个阶段：（1）需求共同识别阶段,创业孵化平台与创业企业通过“交流”与“资源识别”促进“机会感知”并实现“生态共生”;（2）产品共同开发阶段,创业孵化平台与创业企业通过“交心”与“资源优化”促进“模式学习”并实现“生态互生”;（3）市场共同推广阶段,创业孵化平台与创业企业通过“交易”与“资源优化”促进“市场重构”并实现“生态再生”。研究结论对我国孵化器转型升级与“双创”高质量发展有重要指导意义。     

Local context,academic entrepreneurship and open science: Publication secrecy and commercial activity among Japanese and US scientists

Like the US before it, Japan has adopted a series of policy initiatives designed to encourage the commercialization of academic science. However, such initiatives may also adversely affect “open-science”. Based on matched surveys of almost 1000 researchers in Japan and over 800 in the US, the paper examines rates of commercial activity, reasons to patent, and secrecy related to research results. In particular, it examines the extent to which participation in commercial activity is associated with publication secrecy. The results show that patenting rates are higher in Japan, while industry funding is more common in the US. In addition, the overall level of publication secrecy is greater in Japan. And, in both countries, individuals who are commercially active are less likely to share their research results through publication. But, patents are less directly linked to commercial activity in Japan than in the US, and have less impact on academic secrecy. The results suggest that academic entrepreneurship is associated with reduced participation in open science, but that the extent of adverse effects depends significantly on institutional context.     

How commitment and platform adoption drive the e-commerce performance of SMEs: A mixed-method inquiry into e-commerce affordances

To cope with the digital transition exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, managers of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to adopt innovative practices to face uncertain scenarios and create long-term value, identified as transformational entrepreneurship practices. Among emerging digital technologies, digital platforms are shaping and outgrowing the e-commerce channel representing a potential opportunity for manufacturing SMEs to embrace digital transformation. Drawing on affordance theory, this research uses a mixed method approach to investigate how manufacturing SMEs’ e-commerce commitment and digital platform adoption stimulate the actualization of three e-commerce affordances: consumer knowledge generation, internationalization, and customer diversification. Based on survey responses from 165 manufacturing SME managers, we find that direct selling through owned websites actualizes consumer knowledge generation and internationalization, indirect selling actualizes customer diversification and internationalization, and agency selling through third-party platforms actualizes all three affordances. The relationship between e-commerce commitment and ecommerce performance is mediated by consumer knowledge generation and internationalization but not by customer diversification. A fsQCA analysis outlines seven configurations actualizing these e-commerce affordances by pairing different ecommerce approaches with degrees of e-commerce commitment. Finally, an analysis of open-ended questions from 24 respondents complements the study and deeply interprets the seven unique configurations outlined.     

基于生态系统观的区域创新创业载体运营效率分析——以广东省珠海市为例

以创新创业生态系统理论为基础,对应区域创新创业载体的投入和产出两个方面设计运营效率评价体系,通过对广东省珠海市15家经认定的市级创新创业孵化基地作为对象开展实证调研。结果发现,区域创新创业载体的运营效率处于达标水平,但是需要重视创新创业生态体系各要素的系统动态建设成效。从投入产出的对比来说,无效或低效的产出主要体现在在孵企业绩效、毕业企业绩效和政策落地绩效等方面。     

The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress,challenges and key themes

The emergence of novel and powerful digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures has transformed innovation and entrepreneurship in significant ways. Beyond simply opening new opportunities for innovators and entrepreneurs, digital technologies have broader implications for value creation and value capture. Research aimed at understanding the digital transformation of the economy needs to incorporate multiple and cross-levels of analysis, embrace ideas and concepts from multiple fields/disciplines, and explicitly acknowledge the role of digital technologies in transforming organizations and social relationships. To help realize this research agenda, we identify three key themes related to digitization—openness, affordances, and generativity—and, outline broad research issues relating to each. We suggest that such themes that are innate to digital technologies could serve as a common conceptual platform that allows for connections between issues at different levels as well as the integration of ideas from different disciplines/areas. We then summarize the contributions of the 11 papers presented in this Special Issue relating them to one or more of these themes and outlining their implications for future research.     

创新创业政策对早期创业行为的作用机制研究

本文首先建立了创新创业政策对微观创业行为作用机制的理论框架,在此基础上采用2007-2016年间58个国家的580个观测样本开展经验验证,验证了创新创业政策对早期创业行为的调节作用。研究结果表明：（1）创业资本和能够感知的创业机会对早期创业行为有着显著的正向影响;（2）创新创业政策并非直接作用于创业活动,而是通过增强创业资本和创业机会对早期创业行为的正向影响,发挥了重要的调节作用;（3）国家发展阶段、创新创业相关基础设施建设情况和创新创业文化也对全社会的早期创业行为发挥了重要影响。研究结果丰富了创业行为研究的内容,也为结合创业行为特征开展创新创业政策制定提供了决策参考。     

大型企业数字创新驱动的创业：实践创新与理论挑战

在数字经济时代,大型企业在技术创新与创业发展所展现出的骨干支撑作用日益凸显。随着越来越多的大型企业开始通过支持和推动多元创业活动来识别新的发展机遇和培育新的竞争优势,有关大型企业组织僵化、结构臃肿等方面的陈旧负面印象被打破。然而,目前还鲜少有研究将大型企业的创业实践与数字创新相结合,探讨数字经济下由创新驱动的大型企业创业活动,导致对大型企业是如何在数字技术创新的支撑下驾驭企业创业活动的理解仍然有限。对此,本文首先梳理提炼了大型企业在数字经济时代的机遇和优势,然后对既有研究中对大型企业创业的关注与探索进行了回顾与总结。其次,以前述梳理工作为逻辑起点,提出了有可能挑战管理主流理论观点的研究课题,即公司关联创业、大型企业机会识别与定义以及对管理模式的冲击。最后,本文总结了本次专栏的工作,并讨论了未来的研究方向。     

开源软件对数字图书馆建设的有关问题与对策

本文从开源软件特性及应用于数字图书馆建设方面入手,分析使用开源软件存在的问题,最后对我国图书馆使用开源软件提出了建议。     

Using big data for co-innovation processes: Mapping the field of data-driven innovation,proposing theoretical developments and providing a research agenda

This is the first systematic literature review concerning the interconnections between big data (BD) and co-innovation. It uses BD as a common perspective of analysis as well as a concept aggregating different research streams (open innovation, co-creation and collaborative innovation). The review is based on the results of a bibliographic coupling analysis performed with 51 peer-reviewed papers published before the end of 2019. Three thematic clusters were discovered, which respectively focused on BD as a knowledge creation enabler within co-innovation contexts, BD as a driver of co-innovation processes based on customer engagement, and the impact of BD on co-innovation within service ecosystems. The paper theoretically argues that the use of BD, in addition to enhancing intentional and direct collaborative innovation processes, allows the development of passive and unintentional co-innovation that can be implemented through indirect relationships between the collaborative actors. This study also makes eleven unique research propositions concerning further theoretical developments and managerial implementations in the field of BD-driven co-innovation.     

创新众包平台对接包方中标率的影响机制研究

基于国内创新众包平台时间财富网515份问卷调查的数据,采用多元回归最小二乘法和二元logistic回归方法,将网络创新平台环境分为五个维度进行考量,并引入动机这一中介变量即外部动机、娱乐动机、认可动机和归属动机,对平台环境和动机的内在关联以及其对接包方中标率的影响关系首次做了尝试性研究。结果显示,平台的信任环境、新颖性和接包方之间的沟通交流学习行为对接包方的认可动机和归属动机有正面影响,能够提高接包方中标率。     

A General framework for studying the evolution of the digital innovation ecosystem: The case of big data

This paper presents a general framework for studying the digital innovation ecosystem. The notion of complex networks offers a conceptual lens to analyze the emergence and evolution of a digital innovation ecosystem. The framework uses digital data and evolutionary community detection analysis for the empirical inquiry of the digital innovation landscape. The proposed framework is applied to the big data ecosystem. Data from Twitter, for a three year period, is processed and analyzed. This study reveals a large number of elements that are diverse in form and capacity, including organizations, concepts (e.g., #analytics, #iot), technologies (e.g., #hadoop), applications (e.g., #healthcare), infrastructures (e.g., #cloud), regulations, professional meetings and associations, tools, and knowledge. These elements and their communities have evolved in the big data ecosystem. The findings highlight the evolution of digital innovation by two mechanisms, variation and selective retention, which are nonlinear and often unpredictable. Implications are presented and potential ways to improve the proposed framework are discussed. The study aims to make both conceptual and methodological contributions to digital innovation research.     

The role of institutional entrepreneurship in building digital ecosystem: A case study of Red Collar Group (RCG)

Institutional entrepreneurship has increasingly played a critical role in successfully achieving organizational transformation, especially one that involves building a digitally enabled ecosystem. However, despite fruitful research on institutional entrepreneurship, it is still not clearly understood how one might successfully achieve organizational transformation. Thus, our study aims to disambiguate this black box by examining the case study of Red Collar Group (RCG), a market leader in making custom made suits. The findings of this case highlight the significant role played by institutional entrepreneurship in achieving organizational transformation. It highlights that institutional entrepreneurship is evident in different modes of action in the transformational process of building the digital ecosystem.