149,787 research outputs found
How Technology Evolution and Disruption are Defining the World’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: The Case of Barcelona’s Startup Ecosystem
This article provides a critical overview of the development process of entrepreneurial ecosystems and the role played by technology and startups within such process. The analysis focus on the characteristics and components of entrepreneurial ecosystems with special attention to startups, as they are the main actors of these ecosystems. The objectives are reached through a critical literature review. Results show the evolution of these ecosystems, and an in-deep analysis of the role played by startups, big companies and governments in such evolution. The knowledge paradox between universities and startups is also taken into account together with and the importance of cities in the development of successful entrepreneurial ecosystems. We apply the result of our critical review to the analysis of the case of the Barcelona Ecosystem. Last section is devoted to policy implications for the strengthening of entrepreneurial ecosystems with special reference to the universities and the need for a redesign of technology transfer strategies. Success factors analysis and specific policy recommendations can help to a better understanding and policy planning of entrepreneurial ecosystems
Digital Ecosystems: Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures
We view Digital Ecosystems to be the digital counterparts of biological
ecosystems. Here, we are concerned with the creation of these Digital
Ecosystems, exploiting the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems
to evolve high-level software applications. Therefore, we created the Digital
Ecosystem, a novel optimisation technique inspired by biological ecosystems,
where the optimisation works at two levels: a first optimisation, migration of
agents which are distributed in a decentralised peer-to-peer network, operating
continuously in time; this process feeds a second optimisation based on
evolutionary computing that operates locally on single peers and is aimed at
finding solutions to satisfy locally relevant constraints. The Digital
Ecosystem was then measured experimentally through simulations, with measures
originating from theoretical ecology, evaluating its likeness to biological
ecosystems. This included its responsiveness to requests for applications from
the user base, as a measure of the ecological succession (ecosystem maturity).
Overall, we have advanced the understanding of Digital Ecosystems, creating
Ecosystem-Oriented Architectures where the word ecosystem is more than just a
metaphor.Comment: 39 pages, 26 figures, journa
The Dynamics of Transformation in the Development of Digital Services
Service providers are increasingly depending and using digital infrastructure and tools provided by digital platforms to transform their services and develop digital ones that meet the needs of heterogeneous end users. However, while there is an emerging literature of developing digital services, little is known about the dynamics of transformation. Using multiple cases of firms that develop digital services, the digital service taxonomy was synthesized to understand the dynamics of transformation in developing digital services. This study identifies five main dynamics: the services experience, the service process, the service capabilities, the service environment and the service delivery. Each of those dynamics and their associated factors is explored under the objectives of business, interaction and technology. This enables us to extend the existing literature on digital service development in particular and contributes to the research of digital innovation in general
Synthesizing the role of epigenetics in the response and adaptation of species to climate change in freshwater ecosystems
Freshwater ecosystems are amongst the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. Currently, climate change is one of the most important drivers of freshwater transformation and its effects include changes in the composition, biodiversity and functioning of freshwater ecosystems. Understanding the capacity of freshwater species to tolerate the environmental fluctuations induced by climate change is critical to the development of effective conservation strategies. In the last few years, epigenetic mechanisms were increasingly put forward in this context because of their pivotal role in gene-environment interactions. In addition, the evolutionary role of epigenetically inherited phenotypes is a relatively recent but promising field. Here, we examine and synthesize the impacts of climate change on freshwater ecosystems, exploring the potential role of epigenetic mechanisms in both short- and long-term adaptation of species. Following this wrapping-up of current evidence, we particularly focused on bringing together the most promising future research avenues towards a better understanding of the effects of climate change on freshwater biodiversity, specifically highlighting potential molecular targets and the most suitable freshwater species for future epigenetic studies in this context
- …