Expanding entrepreneurship education ecosystems

Purpose The creation of start-ups using knowledge provided by universities has been identified as an important source of knowledge spillover and regional economic development. Entrepreneurship ecosystems in education have become the most important and efficient mechanism of business community engagement and knowledge transfer within university-industry-government framework creating value to society and regional economy. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach This study undertakes in-depth synthesis of eclectic literature on entrepreneurship ecosystems and knowledge spillover of entrepreneurship, examining the critical success factors and enablers of entrepreneurship ecosystems in education. Findings This study proposes entrepreneurship education ecosystems as an alternative unit of analysis when it comes to considering the role of university-industry-government collaboration in knowledge commercialization. The authors recommend key entrepreneurship education ecosystem enablers for knowledge commercialization and engagement with entrepreneurial communities. Originality/value The authors propose a framework for the creation of an entrepreneurship education ecosystem as a unit of analysis when considering the role of university-industry-government collaboration. It requires different approaches to teaching, research and business outreach, some of which have not yet been discovered or yet need to be created

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: A Governance Perspective

Entrepreneurial ecosystems have grown in prominence given the vital need to transform economies around the creation of innovative products and services,thereby leading to wealth creation and international competitiveness. Such ecosystems involve a network of interactions of individuals and organizations from business, government and university. Despite the heightened popularity of entrepreneurial ecosystems, more attention is needed on the effective governance of its key stakeholders to ensure that anticipated outcomes are achieved. The current literature focuses mainly on business stakeholders rather than the wider variety of players from government and university who also play a critical role. It also inadequately addresses the governance process in managing these stakeholders to ensure appropriate performance. To address these issues, this study applies network governance theories to the entrepreneurship literature. In so doing, it offers pertinent governance implications to key stakeholders involved in entrepreneurial ecosystems including firms, universities and government agencies

Sensemaking Practices in the Everyday Work of AI/ML Software Engineering

This paper considers sensemaking as it relates to everyday software engineering (SE) work practices and draws on a multi-year ethnographic study of SE projects at a large, global technology company building digital services infused with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Our findings highlight the breadth of sensemaking practices in AI/ML projects, noting developers' efforts to make sense of AI/ML environments (e.g., algorithms/methods and libraries), of AI/ML model ecosystems (e.g., pre-trained models and "upstream"models), and of business-AI relations (e.g., how the AI/ML service relates to the domain context and business problem at hand). This paper builds on recent scholarship drawing attention to the integral role of sensemaking in everyday SE practices by empirically investigating how and in what ways AI/ML projects present software teams with emergent sensemaking requirements and opportunities

Sustaining Superior Performance in Business Ecosystems: Evidence From Application Software Developers in the iOS and Android Smartphone Ecosystems

We study the phenomenon of business ecosystems in which platform firms orchestrate the functioning of ecosystems by providing platforms and setting the rules for participation by complementor firms. We develop a theoretical framework to explain how the structural and evolutionary features of the ecosystem may shape the extent to which participating complementor firms can sustain their superior performance. The structural feature, which we refer to as ecosystem complexity, is a function of the number of unique components or subsystems that interact with the complementor’s product. We incorporate the evolutionary features by considering the role of generational transitions initiated by platform firms over time as well as the role of complementors’ ecosystem-specific experience. Evidence from Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android smartphone ecosystems supports our arguments that higher ecosystem complexity helps app developers sustain their superior performance, and that this effect is stronger for more experienced firms. In contrast, platform transitions initiated by Apple and Google make it more difficult for app developers to sustain their performance superiority, and that this effect is exacerbated by the extent of ecosystem complexity. The study offers a novel account of how the performance of complementor firms in platform-based business ecosystems may be shaped by their ecosystem-level interdependencies

Next Generation Business Ecosystems: Engineering Decentralized Markets, Self-Sovereign Identities and Tokenization

Digital transformation research increasingly shifts from studying information systems within organizations towards adopting an ecosystem perspective, where multiple actors co-create value. While digital platforms have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in consumer-facing industries, organizations remain cautious about fully embracing the ecosystem concept and sharing data with external partners. Concerns about the market power of platform orchestrators and ongoing discussions on privacy, individual empowerment, and digital sovereignty further complicate the widespread adoption of business ecosystems, particularly in the European Union. In this context, technological innovations in Web3, including blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies, have emerged as potential catalysts for disrupting centralized gatekeepers and enabling a strategic shift towards user-centric, privacy-oriented next-generation business ecosystems. However, existing research efforts focus on decentralizing interactions through distributed network topologies and open protocols lack theoretical convergence, resulting in a fragmented and complex landscape that inadequately addresses the challenges organizations face when transitioning to an ecosystem strategy that harnesses the potential of disintermediation. To address these gaps and successfully engineer next-generation business ecosystems, a comprehensive approach is needed that encompasses the technical design, economic models, and socio-technical dynamics. This dissertation aims to contribute to this endeavor by exploring the implications of Web3 technologies on digital innovation and transformation paths. Drawing on a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, it makes three overarching contributions: First, a conceptual perspective on \u27tokenization\u27 in markets clarifies its ambiguity and provides a unified understanding of the role in ecosystems. This perspective includes frameworks on: (a) technological; (b) economic; and (c) governance aspects of tokenization. Second, a design perspective on \u27decentralized marketplaces\u27 highlights the need for an integrated understanding of micro-structures, business structures, and IT infrastructures in blockchain-enabled marketplaces. This perspective includes: (a) an explorative literature review on design factors; (b) case studies and insights from practitioners to develop requirements and design principles; and (c) a design science project with an interface design prototype of blockchain-enabled marketplaces. Third, an economic perspective on \u27self-sovereign identities\u27 (SSI) as micro-structural elements of decentralized markets. This perspective includes: (a) value creation mechanisms and business aspects of strategic alliances governing SSI ecosystems; (b) business model characteristics adopted by organizations leveraging SSI; and (c) business model archetypes and a framework for SSI ecosystem engineering efforts. The dissertation concludes by discussing limitations as well as outlining potential avenues for future research. These include, amongst others, exploring the challenges of ecosystem bootstrapping in the absence of intermediaries, examining the make-or-join decision in ecosystem emergence, addressing the multidimensional complexity of Web3-enabled ecosystems, investigating incentive mechanisms for inter-organizational collaboration, understanding the role of trust in decentralized environments, and exploring varying degrees of decentralization with potential transition pathways

Identity Projection Strategies for Non-Focal Actors in Digital Ecosystems

In digital ecosystems, non-focal actors cannot survive without working on the identity of their apps. The identity expresses what the app is about to customers. However, it also projects an image of the role of the non-focal actor in the larger ecosystem. Such identity projection is relevant for managing the relationship with focal actors of the digital ecosystem. We outline and test three strategies for identity projection (identity conformity, identity differentiation, and identity refinement). Using panel data of social networking applications in the iOS appStore in China between 2014 and 2019, we investigate the influence of non-focal actors’ identity projection on their survival in digital ecosystems. Our result shows significantly increased app survival for those who actively pursue the identity projection strategies in three directions. Thus, we shed light on the role of platform identity in navigating platform competition in the digital age when participation across ecosystems becomes compulsory for every digital business

The Human Factor in Blockchain Ecosystems: A Sociotechnical Framework

As blockchain development continues at an ever-increasing pace, an increasing number of individual actors and organizations throughout entire economies get into contact with the technology. Furthermore, the growing collaboration of companies, customers, suppliers, and other actors is evolving into a multilateral network between the parties engaged with the technology. Therefore, to understand blockchain-based business models and innovations, it is necessary to understand human interactions within blockchain ecosystems. Consequently, this paper offers new insights concerning the role of human actors within blockchain ecosystems. For this purpose, the structure within and around the Ethereum-blockchain is analyzed using existing literature on the Ethereum ecosystem and Sociotechnical systems. The analysis results are then placed in their context and summarized in a framework for comparable ecosystems

Business modeling in the digital economy

Fourth industrial revolution, artificial intelligence and digital communications entirely lead to the changes in the approaches to the business modeling. The ecosystems of the businesses more than ever before engage all kind of stakeholders to the process of value creation. The value is creating through the entire supply chain by the participation of business, its partners/providers and end consumer. The measure of participation of end consumer in the personalized value creation will depend on his/her engagement in this process. But the world of personal brands which we create by the use of different social media demands people uniqueness and attractiveness for the subscribers. The role of business will be to suggest this opportunity and do it as easier and transparent this can be. The biggest challenge by this kind of business modeling is to define the contribution in the final value of each participant of such collaboration

ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEMS, UNIVERSITIES AND UKRAINIAN INNOVATION POLICY

The article is devoted to the problem of the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems as a medium of growth of small firms with the participation of universities, as well as aspects of state policy in the field of innovation and small business development. It is shown that domestic universities, as a rule, adhere to the traditional innovative approach of cooperating with entrepreneurship on the basis of technology transfer and obtaining a direct financial result. The provisions of the Strategy for the development of small and medium enterprises and the role of universities in these aspects of state policy remain conceptually uncertain. It is proved that universities in Ukraine are not focused on the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and in support of small businesses. An example of the university unit's activity, whose cooperation with small firms contributes to the formation of a business ecosystem, is considered. The possibilities of increasing the role of the universities of the country in the formation of entrepreneurial ecosystems and more productive cooperation with small business are substantiated. The project of the Strategy of innovation development of the country for the period till 2030 is considered and it is proposed to pay more attention to creation of enterprise ecosystems with the participation of universities, and also to introduce the approach of knowledge exchange between universities and business on the basis of positive experience of a number of leading countries. Keywords: entrepreneurial ecosystem, university, high growth firm, small business, innovation, technology transfer, knowledge exchange

Engagement on Digital Platforms: A Theoretical Perspective

The new business models enabled by digital platforms and the ecosystems built around them drive the most profound change in the global macroeconomic environment today. User engagement plays a crucial role in value creation for platform business models. Although Information Systems (IS) literature has started examining this key concept, it presents diverse and inconsistent conceptualizations, resulting in an incomplete nomological network of engagement with important antecedents, consequences, and mechanisms left largely unexamined. This study aims to build a theory of engagement for digital platforms. To achieve this goal, we have provided a coherent definition and a preliminary typology in this extended abstract. We will construct a nomological network of engagement in our follow-up study