Digital Entrepreneurship and its Role in Innovation Systems: A Systematic Literature Review as a Basis for Future Research Avenues for Sustainable Transitions

Abstract

Digital entrepreneurship is an essential driver within the innovation system. It changes the structure, aims, and networking mechanisms of the overall business system and, ultimately, affects the various levels and dimensions of the innovation system. Bringing inevitable changes to the innovation system, digital technologies may not only provide new business opportunities but also be disruptive and cause new vulnerabilities. In order to gain a rigorous understanding of the hybrid concept of digital entrepreneurship and its role within the transformation of the innovation system, we conducted a systematic literature review. The results of 52 core papers allow for the identification of key categories of digital entrepreneurship and also its differentiation from other types of business activities. The analysis leads to the distinction of the determinants of digital entrepreneurship within three core dimensions of the innovation system, which encompass the entrepreneur (including, e.g., behavioral, competence. and mentality patterns, as well as personal outcomes and consequences of entrepreneurial activity), the entrepreneurial process (including activities that concern digitalization in organizational management processes, transformations within strategic and operational activities, and digital start-up establishment), and its relevant ecosystem (which encompasses, among others, the influence that external infrastructure and institutions have on digital entrepreneurship development). The systematization of the existing literature is highly relevant for future research that aims to understand the interrelations between the transformation of entrepreneurial structures within innovation systems as well as the socioeconomic system in general. Such understanding requires further extended research in fields related to method, content, and theory.

A business transformation model to enhance the sustainability of small-sized family businesses

“…Family business exists when a family or a person of the related family owns at least 20% of the cash flow rights in the company either di-rectly or indirectly, through ownership of shares in both public and private entities (Memili, 2015). A family business usually starts with one owner, in which over time the family ownership of the business will transfer to the next generation (Goto, 2014;Satalkina & Steiner, 2020;Steier et al, 2015;Yukselen & Yildiz, 2014).…”

Praxis of Using Digital Platforms in Student Entrepreneurial Activities as a Non-Formal Learning in Higher Education

“…The development of digital entrepreneurship requires the collaboration of third parties from the government, universities, and industry (Satalkina & Steiner, 2020). The Ministry of Communication and Information launched a policy of the 1000 digital startup movement.…”

Determinants of a sustainable innovation system

“…To achieve these sustainable goals, innovation is necessary, which allows the available technology to be used so that the environmental impact of the use of natural resources are not affected by productive activities and, on the contrary, a cycle is generated where various sectors are involved in the transformation of renewable biological resources (Purkus et al, 2018). In this way, information and communication technologies can improve the performance of companies in a sense of sustainability, only if the knowledge of socio‐environmental systems and development strategies are included (Satalkina & Steiner, 2020).…”

“…However, in some cases, environmental sustainability conflicts with social sustainability, including possible problems between economic, social, and environmental objectives that potentially affect sustainable development (Lu, Bengtsson, Bohman, & Staffansson, 2020). In this divergence, innovation systems (ISs) provide the conditions for business activities and their innovative performance (Satalkina & Steiner, 2020). Therefore, it can be understood that, in a sustainable innovation system (SIS), various actors are involved (society, companies, and users) that interact in the renovation processes, regulated and guided by the economic, environmental, and social objectives of the context in which develops (Lu et al, 2020).…”