Digital Ventures Research Articles

Pioneering Digital Ventures: Investigating Proactive Personality, Education, and Opportunity in Malaysian Higher Education

Digital entrepreneurship has become increasingly important in the context of Industry 4.0. This study explores the connections between digital entrepreneurial intention, proactive personality, entrepreneurial education, and entrepreneurial opportunity among Malaysian public university students. Additionally, it examines the mediating roles of attitudes, subjective norms, and PBC, guided by the TPB. A quantitative research design was employed, collecting data from 250 students, which was then analyzed using SPSS to test the proposed model. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial education and PBC are significant predictors of students’ digital entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, proactive personality, entrepreneurship education, and entrepreneurial opportunity indirectly influence digital entrepreneurial intention via PBC. These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the factors driving digital entrepreneurial intention and highlight the importance of fostering educational environments that support entrepreneurship. The study provides valuable insights for educators and policymakers to develop strategies that enhance digital entrepreneurial capacities among students, promoting innovation and self-employment opportunities

Entrepreneurial Bricolage, Business Model Innovation, and Sustainable Entrepreneurial Performance of Digital Entrepreneurial Ventures: The Moderating Effect of Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Empowerment

Digital entrepreneurial ventures are increasingly embracing a high-quality development trajectory that prioritizes green, low-carbon, and sustainable practices, necessitating ongoing environmental enhancements and the active assumption of social responsibilities alongside economic progress. Despite this, there is a significant disparity in the sustainable entrepreneurial performance among these ventures, highlighting the need for an in-depth exploration of the underlying factors. This study develops a theoretical framework that links entrepreneurial bricolage to business model innovation and ultimately to sustainable entrepreneurial performance, all within the context of a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem (DEE). The research focuses on 371 digital ventures operating within the DEE, examining the relationships and effects among the variables. The findings indicate that entrepreneurial bricolage has a positive impact on sustainable entrepreneurial performance. Furthermore, entrepreneurial bricolage is found to foster business model innovation, which in turn, enhances sustainable performance. The investigation demonstrates that business model innovation partially mediates in the link between entrepreneurial bricolage and the sustainable entrepreneurial performance. Additionally, the DEE’s empowering influence is shown to positively regulate the connection between entrepreneurial bricolage and business model innovation, as well as between business model innovation and sustainable entrepreneurial performance. The empowering effect of the DEE also exerts a positive moderating influence on the indirect impact of sustainable entrepreneurial performance mediated by business model innovation, stemming from entrepreneurial bricolage. This study underscores the significance of entrepreneurial bricolage and the digital entrepreneurship ecosystem, demonstrating that digital startups ought to augment their bricolage skills and leverage the ecosystem’s support to attain enduring sustainable entrepreneurial performance. The conclusions drawn from this research offer valuable insights and serve as a reference for strategies aimed at enhancing the sustainable performance of digital entrepreneurial ventures within the DEE.

Infrastructure required, skill needed: Digital entrepreneurship in rural and urban areas

In this paper, we study the spatial implications of digital entrepreneurship. Leveraging detailed micro-data on the universe of new venture formations in Germany between 2011 and 2018, we illustrate regional determinants of digital entrepreneurship. Unlike conventional entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship demonstrates sustained growth rates throughout this time period, highlighting the policy importance of understanding the drivers of digital ventures’ location choices. The key insight of our study is that digital entrepreneurship requires both digital infrastructure and highly-skilled human capital. If both are present, digital entrepreneurship can flourish in rural areas, even if digital venture formations generally concentrate in urban centers.

Building the Processes Behind the Product: How Digital Ventures Create Business Processes That Support Their Growth

Business process management (BPM) is changing in the digital age. As a result, organizations are confronted with new logics that their business processes adhere to: processes are designed to allow for easy adaptability, infrastructure becomes progressively more flexible, and process participants make their own decisions in ambiguous situations. In this context, business process change becomes increasingly important. Digital ventures – key phenomena in the digital age – heavily rely on digital technology and, hence, have the potential to change quickly. Consequently, their business processes need to change at the same speed. While the literature on BPM proposes different types of business process change and acknowledges that digital technology can enable such developments, it remains to be explored which specific characteristics of digital technology facilitate business process change. The study investigates this by drawing on a multiple case study with seven digital ventures. It finds four patterns of business process changes in digital ventures, illustrating digital technology’s impact on business processes. The study compares the patterns with existing types of business process change from the literature and discusses differences and similarities, trying to advance the understanding of business process dynamics in the digital age.

Resolving the Paradox of Openness for Community-Based Digital Ventures

Resolving the Paradox of Openness for Community-Based Digital Ventures

The influencer‐entrepreneurship journey: A model of staged progression

AbstractWith the ever‐increasing digitalization of society, a growing number of people are inspired to start up their own digital ventures. Within this context, a specific aspect of content entrepreneurship stands out—social media influencers. These influencers attract brands due to their attentional capital and persuasive power. Currently, the development of such influence is not instantaneous but a progressive journey, with influencers exhibiting varying degrees of influence at different stages. For brands aiming to foster effective collaborations, understanding these stages is crucial. However, existing literature lacks a comprehensive theoretical structure that encompasses the full spectrum of the influencer's journey. As such, drawing from the entrepreneurship literature, this paper proposes a model that delineates how social media users develop and enhance their brand as influencer‐entrepreneurs and how their roles transform across the various stages of entrepreneurial progression and facilitate strategic marketing engagement. The proposed model comprises five stages: influence potential, influence formulation, influence competence, influence monetization, and influence reward. In light of the collaborative dynamics between influencers and brands, the model further provides strategic guidance for brand managers and marketers on engaging with influencers at various stages of their journey.

Exploring Digital Entrepreneurship and the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in General Studies Students

In a changing and complex world, the university is no stranger to the incursion of the digital world and the development of entrepreneurial skills in the learning of young university students. Currently, digital ventures have emerged and many of them are seen as tools and spaces for the development of entrepreneurial skills such as leadership, creativity and even new forms of teamwork. The development of skills that lead to the creation of different ventures is a window of opportunity to achieve personal and social improvement. This research was developed under the qualitative approach, and, from the methodology of grounded theory, the experiences of general studies students and their entrepreneurial skills were analyzed using digital resources developed from their curricular experiences. Thus, through semi-structured interviews and content analysis, it was possible to know how these entrepreneurial skills were able to develop learning based on creativity, leadership and teamwork. Ten general studies university students selected under inclusion criteria participated. The technique used was in-depth interview, description and categorical analysis. The results show that the students' experience reflects a partial knowledge of what is meant by digital entrepreneurship. Likewise, it is concluded that the learning experiences of general studies students about their entrepreneurial skills are very important in vocational training. Finally, it is hoped that this research can lead to new studies on the impact that digital entrepreneurship has on society and the culture of our young university students. Received: 5 November 2023 / Accepted: 13 March 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024

When professionals become entrepreneurs: Identity construction of lawtech startup founders in Japan

Abstract How do professionals develop their identity when they become digital venture founders, and how does such identity affect their venture strategy? This article examines this understudied yet important question. The recent wave of digitalization has created opportunities for various professionals to participate in creating new firms. However, studies of professions and entrepreneurship to date have narrowly focussed on professionals’ intrapreneurship efforts within professional service firms (PSFs). This inductive study of lawtech ventures in Japan examines the sources of Founder Social Identity (FSI). The study shows that founders’ professional role identity developed during prior work experience influences their identity work to become an entrepreneur; moreover, the resulting FSI shapes founders’ strategic decisions on market segment choice. This study highlights the significance of a distinct type of FSI, which we call ‘professional communitarian’, for professionals who engage in entrepreneurship beyond the boundary of PSFs.

Big gains in digital ecosystem niches: How facilitators emerge and develop into an organizational category

The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem is a complex and dynamic network of entrepreneurs, businesses, institutions, and systems that use digital technology to interact with one another. It is conducive to the creation, development, and sustainment of innovation in digital ventures. However, the building blocks of any digital entrepreneurial ecosystem remain loosely integrated and under-orchestrated in the early stages of its evolution. The entrepreneurial organizations that act as matchmakers and transaction catalysts have thus come to play significant roles in digital entrepreneurial ecosystems’ functioning, but the understanding of these roles remains relatively limited. Through an in-depth qualitative study of the organizational category observed within multi-channel network (MCN) organizations, a new type of intermediary role was identified and conceptualized as that of a facilitator in live streaming e-commerce, a new role in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. The findings suggest that the category emergence of facilitators is based on resource orchestration in the dimensions of people, goods, and scenes, enabled by three primary mechanisms: “novelty perception” (for category awareness), “exemplar projection” (for category scalability), and “structure shaping” (for category recognizability). The theoretical framework developed through this research contributes to the emergence of a new organizational category in the context of the digital economy, as well as offering practical guidance for the category strategy for venture growth in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Digital Bow: Exploring the Potential of Digital Presence for Indigenous Community-Based Tourism in Brazil

ABSTRACT The present research explores the growing use of digital presence in indigenous community-based tourism (CBT) in Brazil, contributing to self-determination, financial security, and heritage sustainability. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when indigenous communities hindered access to villages and ceased on-site tourist activities, the study employs small-scale qualitative research, combining active and passive online methods. The thematic analysis identifies two main themes: [1] the digital bow–a tool for connection, resistance, and awareness; and [2] an exploration of how the pandemic ignited new digital interaction formats in terms of CBT. The findings indicate that during COVID-19, digital presence increased, enriching experiences with visitors. It highlights the potential impact of digital CBT in generating local income while promoting and preserving the community's cultural heritage. Despite challenges related to limited skills and resource access, the research underscores the value of digital ventures in crafting authentic touristic activities and fostering meaningful connections with tourists.

Digital entrepreneurship from cellular data: How omics afford the emergence of a new wave of digital ventures in health

Data has become an indispensable input, throughput, and output for the healthcare industry. In recent years, omics technologies such as genomics and proteomics have generated vast amounts of new data at the cellular level including molecular, structural, and functional levels. Cellular data holds the potential to innovate therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, consumer products, or even ancestry services. However, data at the cellular level is generated with rapidly evolving omics technologies. These technologies use scientific knowledge from resource-rich environments. This raises the question of how new ventures can use cellular-level data from omics technologies to create new products and scale their business. We report on a series of interviews and a focus group discussion with entrepreneurs, investors, and data providers. By conceptualizing omics technologies as external enablers, we show how characteristics of cellular-level data negatively affect the combination mechanisms that drive venture creation and growth. We illustrate how data characteristics set boundary conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship and highlight how ventures seek to mitigate their impact.

On performance drivers of European Fintechs around venture capital: exploring the role of founders’ experience

PurposeMany observers believe that industry experience of entrepreneurs drives successful new entrepreneurial firms. However, whenever it comes to disruptive digital ventures such as Financial Technologies (Fintechs), the picture may be different due to the cross-industry nature of digital firms. The purpose of this study is to disentangle the impacts of finance, banking and information technology (IT) experiences of founders on performance of European Fintechs around venture capital (VC) investment.Design/methodology/approachBased on a data set of 105 Fintechs from European countries, including UK, which are involved in 201 VC rounds between 2006 and 2019, the authors adopt a Bayesian quantile approach to link founders’ experience with two performance measures that identify market success (return on sales) and investment outcome (return on equity).FindingsThe findings indicate that finance and IT-specific experiences seem to matter more often than banking experience and that the extent of their impact depends on level and metric of performance. More specifically, Fintechs in Europe and UK are more able to achieve market success with both finance and IT experiences of their founders, but that does not necessarily transform into higher returns for investors.Originality/valueThis study provides new evidence that not all aspects of industry experience matter for digital ventures, as they must fit to a certain firm, cycle and industry. For Fintech, as the name says, finance and IT experiences matter.

Innovation and entrepreneurship in East Asia during the digital era: post-pandemic prospects

ABSTRACT The global economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic is posing more challenges and problems than expected. Amid the re-building, innovation and entrepreneurship driven by digital technologies are still considered by many as the two important pillars of the regional economic recovery. In East Asia, for example, digital technologies have proven to be effective solutions to not only the pandemic and lockdowns but to the problems of post-pandemic recoveries. This collection explores this to substantiate our hypothesis from multiple aspects. We find that open innovation is an important digital strategy for firms during the post-pandemic era. The entrepreneurial performance of digital start-ups is notably influenced by information and communication technology and artificial intelligence. Simultaneously, the development of digital ventures needs additional help from government policies and local cultural institutions. These findings enrich our understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship in East Asia especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Scaling fast, failing faster: Entrepreneurial team’s capabilities for achieving realized digital scaling

The objective of this work is to examine the entrepreneurial teams’ key capabilities required to achieve realized international scaling of an entrepreneurial digital firm. Through explorative case studies of six Finnish digital firms exhibiting differences in scaling outcomes, this study suggests that a combination of the digital, entrepreneurial, and dynamic capabilities is a vital prerequisite of a realized digital scaling. Research findings also draw attention to the fact that albeit digital affordances offer unprecedented possibilities for international scaling, it is the digital venture’s founder who plays a key role in utilizing and transforming these possibilities into successful international scaling.

Influence of digital divide in the entrepreneurial motor of a digital economy: a system dynamics approach

The creation of digital ventures in developing countries is an alternative to the generation of jobs in the ICT sector, but the lack of qualified individuals in ICT-related skills inhibits the growth of new companies, a gap that is analyzed with the digital divide theory. This research aims to understand the dynamics using a simulation model that combines aspects of the adoption of ICTS, internet availability, skills, with the entrepreneurial motor of innovation systems. The methodology is developed with data from a national ICT survey and organizations in Colombia. Different scenarios are analyzed regarding ICT education and inclusive policies. Results show that Covid-19 pandemic consequences could have a negative effect during five years and that under a scenario of accelerated growth of ICT, the sector could demand up to 400.000 ICT- related jobs by 2035. The main contribution of this research is the understanding of the ICT systems from an inclusive perspective, identifying the key variables that determine the growth of ventures and the development of digital skills among individuals.

Digital innovation in entrepreneurial firms: a systematic literature review

Entrepreneurial firms are central actors in the process of the generation and diffusion of digital innovation which, on the other hand, provides a wide range of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Although existing research has produced several contributions on both topics, the knowledge generated in the field appears fragmented and the findings are sometimes ambiguous. The reason for this fragmentation can be traced back to the lack of reference frameworks that clarify the most used concepts, thus providing a shared language. This study aims to consolidate the state-of-art of scholarly research published over the past 20 years at the intersection of the innovation and entrepreneurship fields of study. To this aim, we carried out a systematic literature review by analyzing a set of 185 papers in order to find what are the relevant topics in the investigated research domain. This activity was performed using MySLR software. Besides a descriptive picture of the scientific activity, a map of the literature published to date that simultaneously addresses the two themes, is provided. In particular, we characterized the six relevant topics in the investigated research domain: start-ups’ collaboration networks, business-model innovation, digital platforms, digital ventures, the digital entrepreneur’s profile, and digital-innovation ecosystems. Based on these results the article proposes three main research directions for future research: multi-level analysis of Digital Innovation in Entrepreneurial Ventures; interdisciplinary approaches; development of specific theories for igital Innovation. Overall, the value of research is to provide a framework for analyzing the phenomenon of innovation in and with entrepreneurial firms that can be used as a reference model for both entrepreneurship and innovation management researchers.

The rise of digital entrepreneurship in Latin America

Objective: This article discusses why digital start-ups are flourishing in Latin America. Method: Our research setting is Latin American digital companies. Our analysis is based on digital companies from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia. We examined lists of Latin unicorn companies (valuation + US$ 1B) and other prominent digital companies compiled from available sources from CB Insights, and TechCrunch. We systematically gathered data on the companies’ growth trajectory from data sources, including online material from the companies’ official websites and public reports, press releases, and press interviews made by the heads of the companies, and internal reports. Main Results: The article discusses the drivers behind the scaling and expansion of digital start-ups and the increasing maturity of the entrepreneurial ecosystems that support them. Relevance / Originality: While Latin digital companies have gained media and investors’ attention, there is scant analysis of how these companies have surpassed the startup stage and scaled up their operations. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: Our contribution focuses on understanding Latin America's particular conditions and the impact of digital ventures on the region's business landscape. We bring practical insights on how Latin American digital companies are growing, as digital entrepreneurship is experiencing an extraordinary growth route in the region and is linked to economic growth and innovation.

Digital Product Architecture and Customer Agility: Evidence from New Digital Ventures

New digital ventures are transforming the world around us. Born-digital companies (such as Uber) that were initially established to serve a specific market can quickly detect new opportunities in other markets and respond to these opportunities by reassembling their resources with speed and ease. Limited research has investigated how product architecture enables or hinders the ability of the firm to sense customer-related opportunities and respond to them effectively. By examining two new digital ventures, this study sheds light on new digital ventures’ customer agility. Specifically, we address how the characteristics of new digital ventures’ product architectures facilitate or hinder the development of the customer-sensing and customer-responding capability dimensions of customer agility. We present theoretical and managerial implications regarding how to leverage digital technologies to foster customer agility.

Innovating to survive in competitive markets: business model innovation of Chinese digital businesses

PurposeBusiness model innovation (BMI) has been posited as essential for both new and existing digital business, as they commonly operate in competitive and fast-moving markets with limited entry barriers. However, it is highlighted within the literature that the understanding of how BMI contributes to business success and how new digital ventures develop competitive advantage is still unclear. This study aims to address this lacuna by exploring how young Chinese digital businesses develop and innovate their business models to survive in fast-moving and competitive markets.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopted a multiple case study design, with qualitative data being collected from the founders of five Chinese digital businesses, to develop an understanding of the evolution of their business models and BMI from their inception.FindingsThe findings add support for the contention that BMI can play an important role and is beneficial in the success of such new digital ventures in highly competitive environments. The founders attribute their success to a willingness for continued BMI, an openness to new opportunities, developing customer relationships and continuous iteration.Originality/valueThis research addresses calls to further the authors’ understanding of how BMI contributes to business success and how new digital ventures develop competitive advantage by exploring the BMI of five highly successful digital businesses from their inception.

Evaluating Affordance-Based Opportunities: A Conjoint Experiment of Corporate Venture Capital Managers’ Decision-Making

We integrate opportunity evaluation reasoning with affordance theory to develop a nuanced theoretical model of action orientation in entrepreneurial decision-making. We test our model with a conjoint experiment of 864 decisions made by 54 corporate venture capital (CVC) managers evaluating digital ventures for investment. Our findings provide evidence that CVC managers value two sources of digital affordances: the recombinability and the reprogrammability of digital technologies. The results show that CVC managers individuate affordance-based investment opportunities based on their personal and organizational background. We contribute to a fine-grained understanding of action potentials in the evaluation of opportunities and advance affordance theory through a cognitive judgment perspective.