INNOVATIVE DIGITAL START-UPS AND THEIR VENTURE CREATION PROCESS WITH ENABLING DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Start-ups have gained media attention since Google, Facebook and Amazon were launched in the 1990s. The book Lean Start-up, published in 2011, was another important milestone for digital start-up literature. As unicorn companies emerge around the world, topics highlighted in the news include the vast amount of capital that digital start-ups are raising, the ways in which these digital ventures are disrupting industries, and their global impact on digital economy. However, digital start-ups, digital venture ideas, and their venture creation process lack a unified venture creation model, as there is a gap in the re-search on entrepreneurial processes in a digital context. This research is an explorative study of the venture creation process of innovative digital start-ups that examines what is missing from entrepreneurial process models in a digital technology context and investi-gates how early stage digital start-ups conduct the venture creation process, starting with the pre-phase of antecedents and ending with the launch and scaling of the venture. The research proposes a novel process model of innovative digital start-up venture crea-tion and describes the nature and patterns of the process. A conceptual model was devel-oped based on the entrepreneurship, information systems, and digital innovation litera-ture and empirically assessed with a multi-method qualitative research design. The data collected from semi-structured interviews, internet sources, and observation field notes covered 34 innovative digital start-ups and their founders. Interviews were conducted in-ternationally in high-ranking start-up ecosystems, and the data were analysed with the-matic analysis and fact-checked by triangulating internet data sources. The contribution to entrepreneurship theory is a new illustrative model of the venture creation process of innovative digital start-ups, including the emergent outcome of the process having a digi-tal artefact at its core (e.g., mobile apps, web-based solutions, digital platforms, software solutions, and digital ecosystems). Digital platforms and their multiple roles in the process are presented, as well as the role of critical events as moderators of the process which trigger new development cycles. During the venture creation process, the recombining of digital technologies, modules, and components enabled by digital infrastructures, plat-forms, and ecosystem partners represent digital technology affordances. This recombina-tion provides opportunities for asset-free development of digital venture ideas

An ISO/IEC 12207 perspective on software development process adaptation

In their earlier work, the authors had a sustained engagement with situational factors affecting software development, particularly how these factors affect the software development process. Part of this previous engagement involved the development of a situational factors reference framework. As part of an ongoing industrial engagement, the authors are currently examining situational factors and software development processes in a series of case studies. This latest case study is concerned with a small start-up organization. They start by identifying the software development process in this organization. Thereafter, the authors examine the situational context of the company, leading to an analysis of the relationship between the process and the situational context. Their general findings are consistent with their previous related work, supporting the case that a software development process is dependent on the organizational context, perhaps in a highly complex manner. In this particular case study, the authors also find that the role of organizational learning and process adaption is considered to be central to organizational survival

User-guided knowledge discovery using Bayesian networks.

A Bayesian network is a graphical model that encodes probabilistic relationships among variables of interest. When used in conjunction with statistical techniques, the graphical model has shown to be remarkably effective for some data-modeling problems. In this paper, we represent a computational model to apply Bayesian networks to knowledge discovery under uncertainty in a decision support system. Major features of this model include user-computer interaction and iterative information extraction. The user plays a primary role when determining the acceptance or refusal of intermediate information, while the computer in a supporting role crunches the numbers. Two computation streams are provided in the model: (1) Top-down stream: the user enters the expectation value for the goal, and then calculates the expected values for all the nodes in the network. (2) Bottom-up stream: the user input provides evidence into the network, and testifies the effect of the evidence to the goal node. We also designed and developed a software prototype to demonstrate the application of the proposed model. By using the software prototype, the user can easily construct and modify a Bayesian network. Not only does the network establish a connection between the customer requirement and the given source data, but also serves as the tool for our knowledge discovery process. With a tentative Bayesian network, propagations are carried out to testify the relevance represented in the network. After reviewing the results, the user may decide to remove some irrelevant components from the network, or he may want to add new components into the network, which will start a new iteration of the know ledge discovery process. As the repetition goes on, the user will get closer and closer to reach a Bayesian network that suits the problem domain. The information retrieved by applying the derived Bayesian network, together with the network itself, will then be used in further decision support

High Profile Systems Illustrating Contradistinctive Aspects of Systems Engineering

AbstractMany modern systems have a high degree of dependence on embedded software in order to perform their required functions. Some examples include transportation systems, hand-held devices, and medical equipment, among others. In designing their products, systems engineers typically take a top-down, process-oriented approach, decomposing a complex system into simpler, easier to manage, subsystems; the system requirements can then be allocated and flowed down as necessary to the appropriate subsystems. Software engineers take a more bottom-up, object-oriented approach, using simple building blocks to create a more complex system, and enhancing their existing blocks with new ones where necessary.In many cases, both techniques must be employed together in order to design a successful system. Although it may have been acceptable in the past for simpler systems to view software as a separate subsystem with a fixed set of requirements, greater complexity of modern systems requires a corresponding improvement in working methodology. With the software playing an increasingly pivotal role, systems engineers must become much more familiar with the architecture of the software than previously; Likewise, software engineers need a systems-level view to understand which aspects of the design could be volatile due to new stakeholders (bringing with them new requirements), technology upgrades, and the changing world in general.Systems whose success or failure play out in the public arena provide a rare opportunity to study the factors that contribute to their outcome. Using two such systems, the Denver International Airport baggage handling system and the Apple iPad, this paper will study some best practices that can lead to project success or failure, and show the importance of a rigorous capture and flow down to both hardware and software of the requirements that must be correct from the start, as well as of designing an architecture that can accommodate the inevitable changes to a system.Designing extensible systems with a tolerance for future changes is a key factor in modern complex systems. The baggage handling system failed in part because of a failure to appreciate the central role of software and an apparent lack of a suitable strategy for handling requirement changes. Methods for creating software which is resilient to change have been well studied; however what may be somewhat lacking even to the present day is a broader education of the existing body of knowledge, and how to integrate it with systems engineering methods.The iPad succeeded where many of its predecessors had failed by a successful application of traditional systems engineering techniques and correctly implementing the hardware elements. Coming from companies with experience in software development, the system extensibility was not an issue in this case. However, the designers of the earlier systems seemingly failed to understand the actual market needs, failed to develop a corresponding set of requirements to meet those needs, and failed to translate those requirements into an integrated hardware/software solution

Information technology in landscape architecture

This paper discusses the impact of information technology on the tools, methods, and professional role of the landscape architect. This profession is presently expanding into new fields, resulting in an increased specialization. The new tools made available through information technology adds to the difficulties – and possibilities – facing the individual landscape architect. The landscape architect is active in a system aimed at information processing. The study starts off in this system, focusing on the following elements: information, technology, data structure, role, communication, and result. As a foundation for the discussion, the general history of the computer is described. With the start in mainframe computing in the 1960s, the computer today provides personal computing power, as well as access to a worldwide network for communication and information retrieval. The historical description also covers the tools of the landscape architect – mainly maps, drawings, and images. The emphasis lies on presentation techniques, showing their evolution from the Egyptian multi-view tradition to the Renaissance single-point perspective, still dominating today. However, computer use has inspired a new form of presentation technique with several views and projections, thereby closing the circle. One of the problems facing the digital landscape architect is access to data and information. The processing itself is also complicated by the fact that many architectural problems fall outside the range of the software, especially in conceptual design. Knowledge engineering and expert systems are only giving rudimentary support to the process. Still, the computer is used in many fields of the profession, to a rapidly increasing extent. Computer aided drafting is today standard software in landscape architectural practices. Two areas of special interest in the future are geographic information systems, and three dimensional modeling in design and presentation as well as in construction. Data structure is of utmost importance for the further development of computer tools. As communication and digital information retrieval increases, standards must be agreed upon. This is a complex and slow process. Digital product modeling will be equally slow in acceptance. The range of software today covers much of the information processing that takes place in planning and design. Up till today, they have had its largest impact on communication and presentation. As a design tool, the computer has yet to prove its use to most landscape architects. Still, it use can in some respects strengthen the professional role, and give opportunities to new fields of expertise. Acquiring the ability to evaluate computer support, and to use it in a professional situation, is largely up to the individual. The parties surrounding the landscape architect provide the framework in terms of possibilities and expectations. Customers demands for the use of digital methods are rising. All these changes show the importance of IT strategies. First of all, the organizations employing the landcape architects need dynamic and up-to-date documents. However, since the choices of methods and tools have a large bearing on how individuals can and will function in planning and design systems, the choices must in the end be made individually. If the decisions are based on knowledge and insight, they can increase the possibilities for the profession to adapt to a changing society, and enhance its role as an active and creative part of this development

Using bricolage to facilitate emergent collectives in SMEs

Starting a new business is often done in a realm of improvisation if resources are scarce and the business horizon is far from clear. Strategic improvisation occurs when the design of novel activities unite. We conducted an investigation of so called ‘emergent collectives’ in the context of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). Emergent collectives are networks of information nodes with minimal central control and largely controlled by a protocol specification where people can add nodes to the network and have a social incentive to do so. We considered here emergent collectives around an enterprise resources planning (ERP) software and a customer relation management (CRM) software in two open source software (OSS) communities. We investigated how the use of bricolage in the context of a start-up microenterprise can facilitate the adoption of an information system (IS) based on emergent collectives. Bricolage is an improvisational approach that allows learning form concrete experience. In our case study we followed the inception of a new business initiative up to the implementation of an IS, during a period of two years. The case study covers both the usefulness of bricolage for strategic improvisation and for entrepreneurial activity in a knowledge-intensive new business. We adopted an interpretative research strategy and used participatory action research to conduct our inquiry. Our findings lead to the suggestion that emergent collectives can be moulded into a usable set of IS resources applicable in a microenterprise. However the success depends heavily on the ICT managerial and technological capabilities of the CEO and his individual commitment to the process of bricolage. Our findings also show that open ERP and CRM software are not passing delusions. These emergent collectives will not take over proprietary ERP and CRM software all of a sudden, but clearly the rules of the game are slowly changing due to the introduction of new business models. The study contributes to the research of OSS as emergent collectives, bricolage and IS adoption in SMEs

Roles and responsibilities in agile ICT for development

This paper examines the different roles in designing interactive software in a ICT for development context. Using experiences from a participatory action research project, in which we used agile methods to design and deploy an system to support ‘agricultural information flow’ for a co-operative of small farmers in rural India, we identify points of difference between the roles in standard descriptions of agile software methods and the roles as they emerged in our project. A key finding is the critical role played by a ‘Development Project Manager’ in facilitating dialogue, orchestrating the activities of other actors and in building the capabilities and confidence of all the participants in joint action