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Scaling Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Impact: Design Knowledge for the Use of Digital Technologies

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Design Science Research for a New Society: Society 5.0 (DESRIST 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13873))

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Abstract

Digital transformation helps organisations become more efficient while increasing their outreach and targeting new markets. However, it also makes the organisational design more malleable and can blur or even disrupt a firm’s boundaries. For sustainable entrepreneurs who develop business models for sustainability (BMfS), this is a Faustian bargain, as they trade independence for more potential. In this in-depth case based on action and design science research, we accompanied and evaluated the design of a BMfS with digital technologies. To evaluate for rising tensions, we looked at the relevant dynamics within the entrepreneurial firm and the digital business ecosystem. Besides a proposed solution model and its evaluation, we present design principles of contingency, re-configuration, and alliancing. This nascent design knowledge explains dynamics that occur when developing business models with digital technologies.

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Acknowledgement

Our work received funding from the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Berlin (DIGITAL+, Masterplan Industriestadt Berlin 2018–2021) and the Commission for Research and Young Scientists (FNK), HTW Berlin. We thank Holger Lütters and Katharina Erdle for insightful collaboration in the workshops conducted to identify the business models’ needs and potential digital solutions, as well as Tim Leipelt for his help with the data-analysing process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICN Business School, CEREFIGE, University of Lorraine, Rue Baron Louis 3-25, 54000, Nancy, France

    Leonhard Gebhardt

  2. University of Potsdam, August-Bebel-Straße 89, 14482, Potsdam, Germany

    Leonhard Gebhardt

  3. Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management, University of Stuttgart, Allmandring 35, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    Katharina Hölzle

  4. Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Nobelstraße 12, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany

    Katharina Hölzle

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  1. Leonhard Gebhardt
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Correspondence to Leonhard Gebhardt .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

    Aurona Gerber

  2. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Richard Baskerville

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Gebhardt, L., Hölzle, K. (2023). Scaling Sustainable Entrepreneurship for Impact: Design Knowledge for the Use of Digital Technologies. In: Gerber, A., Baskerville, R. (eds) Design Science Research for a New Society: Society 5.0. DESRIST 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13873. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32808-4_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32808-4_11

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