Digital entrepreneurship and field conditions for institutional change

Abstract

Digital entrepreneurship may result in institutional turbulence and new initiatives are frequently blocked by vested interest groups who posit superior financial and relational resources. In this paper, we explore the role of cities in facilitating digital entrepreneurship and overcoming institutional resistance to innovation. Drawing upon two historical case studies of digital entrepreneurship in the city of Stockholm along with an extensive material on the sharing economy in Sweden, our results suggest that cities offer an environment that is critical for digital entrepreneurship. The economic and technological diversity of a city may provide the field conditions required for institutional change to take place and to avoid regulatory capture.

Directionality in Innovation Policy and The Ongoing Failure of Green Deals

Book chapterPublication

Sandström, C., & Alm, C.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, 251.

Abstract

Environmental policy is no longer only about imposing regulations onindustry. It is increasingly regarded as industrial policy. Both the European Union and national governments are taking more active roles in initiating green deals and various technologies aiming at sustainable development. In this chapter, we describe and discuss some recent experiences of green innovation policies. Historical examples concerning efforts in both biogas and ethanol are combined with a more contemporary description of fossil-free steel, i.e., steel made using hydrogen instead of coal. We argue that the presence of large public funds from different funding bodies such as the European Union, various government agencies, and municipalities has distorted incentives, making it rational for firms to pursue technologies without long-term potential. The result has been an absence of sustainable development, mounting debt, and financial problems for the actors involved. We explain these results and draw policy conclusions concerning the risks related to green deals. Relatedly, we argue that the European Union’s current efforts in hydrogen gas face similar challenges.

The chapter can be accessed here.

Platforms in Liquid Modernity: Essays about the Sharing Economy, Digital Platforms, and Institutions

BookPublication

Geissinger, A.

Publication year

2021

Published in

(PhD dissertation, Örebro University).

Abstract

The year 2020 feels like the beginning of a crescendo of change. As environmental and social challenges reach an all-time high, the organization of our societies is coming under scrutiny. We, as a society, turn to technology to reinvent the organization of social life after disruptive episodes. Inspired by Bauman’s theorizing to describe the cultural and societal zeitgeist, this thesis explains the institutionalization of one of the most promising alternative forms of organization of the past decade: the sharing economy.

Comprised of nine essays centered around three focal areas: (1) Organizational change, (2) Market change, and (3) Societal change, this thesis aims to explain the institutionalization of digital sharing platforms in liquid modern society.

This thesis finds that digital sharing platforms act as societal organizers on several dimensions of “in-betweenness.” As this moment in time can also be characterized as a period of “interregnum”—another moment of in-betweenness—where old structures are continuously disrupted but no clear new path has emerged, digital platform providers fill a structural void in our highly individualized society. Digital platform providers use community as an anchor, a belief, and sets of practices to create an emerging (intermediary) institution around which different forms of organization manifest.

Digital sharing platforms have, however, remained a grace note on systemic change: ornamental and practically non-essential. Still, digital platforms are setting new norms in all areas of organizational, market, and societal life. By evoking both elements of community and market, digital platforms are playing an important part in creating a symphony of our future societal order

Third-Generation Innovation Policy: System Transformation or Reinforcing Business as Usual?

Book chapterPublication

Bergkvist, J. E., Moodysson, J., & Sandström, C.

Publication year

2022

Published in

Questioning the Entrepreneurial State, 201.

Abstract

There has been a shift in innovation policy in recent years toward more focus on systemic transformation and changed directionality. In this chapter, we describe a collection of challenges that such policies need to address. Based on a review of dominant frameworks regarding socio-technical transitions, we compare these theories with examples of innovation policy in different countries. Systemic transformation across an economy usually requires a process of creative destruction in which new competencies may be required, actors need to be connected in novel ways, and institutions may need to be changed. Our empirical illustrations show that support programs and initiatives across Europe do not always seem to result in such a process, as they include mechanisms favoring large, established firms and universities. These actors have often fine-tuned their activities and capabilities to the existing order, and therefore have few incentives to engage in renewal. As the incumbent actors also control superior financial and relational resources, there is a risk that they captivate innovation policies and thus reinforce established structures rather than contributing to systemic transformation.

Abstract

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