Skip to main content

Digital Entrepreneurship

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Data Science for Entrepreneurship

Part of the book series: Classroom Companion: Business ((CCB))

Abstract

In the past few decades, technological development has led to the digitization and digitalization of (mostly developed) economies into what one could now call digital economies. In a digital economy, digital entrepreneurs pursue opportunities to produce and trade in digital artifacts on so-called digital artifact stores or platforms and/or to create these digital artifact “stores” or platforms themselves. In this chapter, we extensively discuss the effects of a number of typical features of digital economies, such as the presence of (indirect) network effects and digital technologies reducing a number of important economic costs, on the extent and nature of entrepreneurial activity in such economies. Digital platforms have become one of the most discussed forms of digital entrepreneurship. We elaborate on how to create and grow a successful digital platform firm, but also how to successfully compete on such digital platforms. The latter is not so easy, given a number of challenges that digital entrepreneurs typically face when being active on such platforms. Finally, we describe the main features of a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem, in which digital entrepreneurs typically operate, and explain how they can be supported and regulated by policymakers, if necessary at all.

A condensed version of this chapter has appeared previously in Naudé, Wim; Liebregts, Werner (2020): Digital Entrepreneurship Research: A Concise Introduction, IZA Discussion Papers, No. 13667, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn. Reused with permission.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 89.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    See 7 https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/brief/digital-business-indicators.

  2. 2.

    In case of non-rivalrous goods, increased demand does not affect the supply left for other individuals. A good example is Netflix, where more views of the movies and series offered by them do not have any effect on the opportunities for other people to also watch these movies and/or series.

References

  • Acs, Z. J., Autio, E., & Szerb, L. (2014). National systems of entrepreneurship: Measurement issues and policy implications. Research Policy, 43(3), 476–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blank, S. (2013). Why the lean start-up changes everything. Harvard Business Review, 91(5), 635–672.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bortolini, R. F., Nogueira Cortimiglia, M., Danilevicz, A. D. M. F., & Ghezzi, A. (2018). Lean startup: A comprehensive historical review. Management Decision. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-07-2017-0663

  • Brousseau, E., & Penard, T. (2007). The economics of digital business models: A framework for analyzing the economics of platforms. Review of Network Economics, 6(2), 81–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., Hitt, L. M., & Kim, H. H. (2011). Strength in numbers: How does data-driven decision making affect firm performance? SSRN Working Paper. Available at SSRN 1819486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., Hu, Y., & Smith, M. D. (2003). Consumer surplus in the digital economy: Estimating the value of increased product variety at online booksellers. Management Science, 49(11), 1580–1596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., & McElheran, K. (2016). The rapid adoption of data-driven decision making. American Economic Review, 106(5), 133–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brynjolfsson, E., & Saunders, A. (2010). Wired for innovation: How information technology is reshaping the economy. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burtch, G., Carnahan, S., & Greenwood, B. N. (2018). Can you gig it? An empirical examination of the gig economy and entrepreneurial activity. Management Science, 64(12), 5497–5520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavallo, A., Ghezzi, A., Dell’Era, C., & Pellizzoni, E. (2019). Fostering digital entrepreneurship from startup to scaleup: The role of venture capital funds and angel groups. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 145, 24–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, R. (2019). Policy and regulatory issues with digital business. Policy Research Working Paper No. 8948. Washington DC: The World Bank.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coyle, D. (2017). Precarious and productive work in the digital economy. National Institute Economic Review, 240, R5–R14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E., & Vaast, E. (2010). Digital entrepreneurship and its sociomaterial enactment. In Proceedings of the 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1–10). IEEE Computer Society Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Draca, M., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2009). Productivity and ICTs: A review of the evidence. In C. Avgerou, R. Mansell, F. Quah, & R. Silverstone (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of information and communication technologies (pp. 100–147). Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenmann, T. R., Ries, E., & Dillard, S. (2012). Hypothesis-driven entrepreneurship: The lean startup. Harvard Business School Entrepreneurial Management Case No. 812-095.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, T. L. (2016). Thank you for being late: An optimist’s guide to thriving in the age of accelerations. Farrar Straus and Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghezzi, A., & Cavallo, A. (2020). Agile business model innovation in digital entrepreneurship: Lean startup approaches. Journal of Business Research, 110, 519–537.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldfarb, A., & Tucker, C. (2019). Digital Economics. Journal of Economic Literature, 57(1), 3–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howcroft, D., & Bergvall-Kareborn, B. (2018). A typology of crowdwork platforms. Work, Employment and Society, 33(1), 21–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, N. L. (2020). What are network effects? Applico. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from https://www.applicoinc.com/blog/network-effects/

  • Li, W., Badr, Y., & Biennier, F. (2012). Digital ecosystems: Challenges and prospects. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Management of Emergent Digital Ecosystems (pp. 117–122). ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Litan, R. E. (2016). Entrepreneurship, innovation, and antitrust. The Antitrust Bulletin, 61(4), 580–594.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lundqvist, B. (2017). Standardization for the digital economy: The issue of interoperability and access under competition law. The Antitrust Bulletin, 62(4), 710–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menon, C. (2018). Mixing experimentation and targeting: Innovative entrepreneurship policy in a digitized world. In OECD (Ed.), OECD science, technology and innovation outlook 2018 (pp. 297–295). OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nambisan, S., & Baron, R. A. (2019). On the costs of digital entrepreneurship: Role conflict, stress, and venture performance in digital platform-based ecosystems. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.06.037

  • Nambisan, S., Wright, M., & Feldman, M. (2019). The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progress, challenges and key themes. Research Policy, 48, 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ng, W., & Stuart, T. E. (2016). Of hobos and highfliers: Disentangling the classes and careers of technology-based entrepreneurs. Unpublished Working Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, D. C. (1990). A transaction cost theory of politics. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2(4), 355–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nuccio, M., & Guerzoni, M. (2018). Big data: Hell or heaven? Digital platforms and market power in the data-driven economy. Competition & Change, 23(3), 312–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ojanperä, S., Graham, M., & Zook, M. (2019). The digital knowledge economy index: Mapping content production. Journal of Development Studies, 55(12), 2626–2643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parker, G. G., Van Alstyne, M. W., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). Platform revolution: How networked markets are transforming the economy and how to make them work for you. W.W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, G. G., Van Alstyne, M. W., & Jiang, X. (2017). Platform ecosystems: How developers invert the firm. MIS Quarterly, 41(1), 255–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Recker, J., & Von Briel, F. (2019). The future of digital entrepreneurship research: Existing and emerging opportunities. In Fortieth International Conference on Information Systems, Munich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ries, E. (2011). The lean startup. Crown Business.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochet, J. C., & Tirole, J. (2003). Platform competition in two-sided markets. Journal of the European Economic Association, 1(4), 990–1029.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossotto, C. M., Das, P. L., Ramos, E. G., Miranda, E. C., Badran, M. F., Licetti, M. M., & Murciego, G. M. (2018). Digital platforms: A literature review and policy implications for development. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, 19(1–2), 93–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roundy, P. T., Bradshaw, M., & Brockman, B. K. (2018). The emergence of entrepreneurial ecosystems: A complex adaptive systems approach. Journal of Business Research, 86, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shane, S., & Venkataraman, S. (2000). The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 217–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, C. (2001). Navigating the patent thicket: Cross licenses, patent pools, and standard-setting. In A. B. Jaffe (Ed.), Innovation policy and the economy (pp. 119–150). MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stam, E. (2014). The Dutch entrepreneurial ecosystem. Available at: SSRN 2473475.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundarajan, A. (2014). Peer-to-peer businesses and the sharing (collaborative) economy: Overview, economic effects and regulatory issues. Written testimony for the hearing titled The Power of Connection: Peer-to-Peer Businesses by the Committee on Small Business of the United States House of Representatives, January 15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sussan, F., & Acs, Z. J. (2017). The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Small Business Economics, 49, 55–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland, W., & Jarrahi, M. H. (2018). The sharing economy and digital platforms: A review and research agenda. International Journal of Information Management, 43, 328–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, D. (1995). The digital economy promise and peril in the age of networked intelligence. McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tapscott, D. (2012). Capitalism 2.0. Thought Leadership Quarterly (TLQ) Essay. Retrieved from http://dontapscott.com/wp-content/uploads/TLQ-Capitalism2.0-1.pdf

  • The Economist. (2016). The emporium strikes back. Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/business/2016/05/21/the-emporium-strikes-back

  • UNIDO. (2019). Industrializing in the digital age. Industrial development report 2020. United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Alstyne, M. W., Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). Pipelines, platforms, and the new rules of strategy. Harvard Business Review, April (pp. 54–62).

    Google Scholar 

  • Varian, H. R. (2010). Computer mediated transactions. American Economic Review, 100, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Briel, F., Recker, J., & Davidsson, P. (2018). Not all digital venture ideas are created equal: Implications for venture creation processes. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 27(4), 278–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wamba, S. F., Gunasekaran, A., Akter, S., Ren, S. J. F., Dubey, R., & Childe, S. J. (2017). Big data analytics and firm performance: Effects of dynamic capabilities. Journal of Business Research, 70, 356–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wim Naudé .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Naudé, W., Liebregts, W. (2023). Digital Entrepreneurship. In: Liebregts, W., van den Heuvel, WJ., van den Born, A. (eds) Data Science for Entrepreneurship. Classroom Companion: Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19554-9_12

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics