Digital Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation
Summary
Digital entrepreneurship harnesses digital technologies—such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and Internet-based platforms—to launch and scale new ventures that challenge traditional industries. This phenomenon combines entrepreneurial initiative with technological innovation, enabling start-ups to leverage data analytics, network effects and modular architectures to introduce disruptive products and services. Digital ventures often operate within ecosystems composed of investors, incubators, research institutions and policy bodies, which together shape the flow of resources, knowledge and legitimacy. At the same time, established organisations undergo digital transformation, reconfiguring operations and business models around agile practices, open innovation and platform-mediated markets. Success in this domain depends on an interplay of factors including absorptive capacity, collaborative networks and regulatory adaptability. The global relevance of digital entrepreneurship is underscored by its impact on sectors ranging from healthcare and manufacturing to creative industries, where it drives economic growth, social inclusion and sustainability. Understanding the enablers, barriers and outcomes of this interplay between entrepreneurship and technological innovation remains a key challenge for scholars, practitioners and policymakers aiming to foster resilient and inclusive digital economies.
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Digital Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in digital entrepreneurship and technological innovation across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Digital entrepreneurship: The creation and scaling of business ventures through the novel deployment of digital technologies and platforms.
Absorptive capacity: The ability of an organisation to recognise, assimilate and apply external knowledge for innovative purposes.
Agile culture: An organisational environment characterised by iterative processes, rapid decision-making and collaborative cross-functional teams.
Digital entrepreneurial ecosystem: A dynamic network of actors, institutions and infrastructures that collectively support digital venture creation and innovation.
Technology value creation: The process by which technological developments generate economic or social benefits through new products, services or processes.
References
- What do growing early-stage digital start-ups look like? A mixed-methods approach. International Journal of Information Management (2023).
- Digital entrepreneurial ecosystems: A systematic literature review. Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2023).
- Technology entrepreneurship in healthcare: Challenges and opportunities for value creation. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge (2023).
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