A digital identity is a personal information used in identity management in online services such as citizen identification, authentication, and authorization to access systems, networks, and applications. Currently, private and public organizations are turning to blockchain as a proven way to build secure and reliable infrastructure and improve services. This chapter is intended to explore how blockchain is used in identity verification, based on distributed ledger technology, as it enables the secure storage and management of corporate digital IDs and end users. In addition to potentially preventing mass data breaches, the use of blockchain could allow individuals to retain control of their digital identities.
A growing body of research suggests that decentralization is the next step in organizational evolution. However, models on how Web3 organizations live, survive, and die remain overly simplified. We develop a theoretical framework for understanding the survival and failure of Web3 organizations through the lens of institutional theory. We argue that isomorphism encourages Web3 entities to become more centralized and that the organizational hybridity generated from centralization decreases the survival rates of Web3 organizations.
Stephen Muathe, Paul Sang, Lucy Kavinda, Sammy Letema · 6 authors
Kenya’s Startup ecosystem has experienced tremendous growth over the last ten years. Further, Kenya’s startups have also been among the top-funded in the continent during the same period – attracting financing of between USD 300 million – over USD 3 billion. However, there is currently a lack of granular data guiding policies on the startup ecosystem in Kenya. Hence this Paper traces startup successes and pitfalls of the Ten years (2010-2020) Period in Kenya. The study utilized cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. The target population was start-ups registered in the 47 Counties in Kenya. A total of 104 startups participated in the study. A mix of sampling techniques was used, namely cluster-stage, systematic, purposive, and snow-balling sampling techniques, to select the respondents for the study. Data were analyzed using Content analysis descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The findings indicated that startup innovation hubs emerged in Nairobi in 2010 but offer time, which spurred the mushrooming of startups, seats, and co-working spaces with decentralization to significant towns in the country. The Kenyan startup ecosystem has experienced tremendous growth for the last two decades, growing from 10% in the 2000-2010 to 80% in 2010-2020. However, access to financing remains the biggest challenge for startups because of the risk associated with it, especially for early-stage startups. To strengthen the growth of the startup ecosystem, the government, through the statement of Kenya National Innovation Agency, should ensure the development of policies tailored towards startups. The national government should provide matching funds and establish an Inter-county collaboration framework to ensure skills transfer within and among the counties.
Stephen Muathe, Paul Sang, George Kosimbei, Sammy Letema · 10 authors
Over the last 10 years, maturity of the business landscape has unlocked new opportunities in Africa, especially the entry of accelerators, incubators, and other start-up ecosystem players. These organizations are constantly adapting their models to respond to the ever-changing needs of the ventures they support. Therefore, there is need for existing literature to keep abreast with this vitality to strengthen the ecosystems in Kenya. The paper analyses the drivers, challenges and opportunities within the start-up ecosystem in Kenya. The paper is based on cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Human-centred purposive and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 74 respondents who filled an electronic survey; coupled with interview of 50 start-ups ecosystem players. Descriptive statistics and content analysis was used in data analysis. The study reveals that Kenya has made significant strides in the start-up scene, however, there is a heavy concentration of activity in Nairobi the capital city, leading to disparity within the country. Opportunities for collaboration are bypassed in favour of duplication of programs and consequently funds that should ultimately support entrepreneurs are spread thin. a number of challenges bedevilled start-ups, access to financing and risk capital, lack of sector coordination, weak start-up culture, me too businesses, insufficient policies and guidelines on incubation and commercialization, and lack of a robust monitoring, evaluation and learning system. The study recommends that the national government should provide matching funds for venture capital, standardization and decentralization of innovation and incubation centres countrywide, central database for start-ups and sensitization and awareness-building programs on intellectual property rights among start-ups.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the world by storm. Initially started as an art/game experiment, the NFT has given rise to a new form of entrepreneurship in the virtual world with massive opportunities and affordances. However, research into the entrepreneurial aspect of NFTs and the role of agency in the process is limited. In this article, I examine the concept of NFT-enabled Entrepreneurship (or NFTE). I first identify the main characteristics of NFTs, then define NFTE and discuss the related assumptions, and finally propose a conceptual framework for NFTE and investigate its enablers. I conclude by proposing NFTE as a novel domain of entrepreneurship theory and practice with extensive new research opportunities, and the plausibility of using NFT as an alternative mode of knowledge production in which scholars become “NFT creators.”
Higinio Mora, Mario R. Morales, Francisco A. Pujol, Rafael Mollá‐Sirvent
Purpose Growing inequality and socioeconomic and environmental degradation concerns forces us to think about how innovative technologies can contribute to reduce this problem. This study aims to analyze the potential of social cryptocurrencies to enhance the community development and cooperation between small businesses of the near environment. The evolution of these technology-based schemes could be key factors for generating innovative social enterprises, improving the quality of life in the community; in this way generate a conceptual model to sustainable development, while being more transparent, efficient and scalable as they are supported by technological applications. Design/methodology/approach Based on an in-depth study of the relevant literature, a conceptual model was designed. The concept of social cryptocurrency is proposed as a new approach to virtual currencies for social purposes and sustainable development. Findings The key findings point out that actors such as innovation and social entrepreneurship will come together in a new generation of social currencies, extending cryptocurrency technology to social business domains. Research limitations/implications The impact of this will result in a better quality of life for society and the achievement of several sustainable development goals. However, a limitation would be that its scope depends on certain characteristics of the local environment. Furthermore, the proposed model will require validation in later phases through social experiments. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is in structuring a formal model that, based on empirical experiences and the use of the technology that underlies cryptocurrencies, proposes a set of constituent elements and characterizes them to contribute to achievement of sustainable development.
Local food enterprises have mainly emerged from social and environmental movements. These enterprises try to maintain and develop values contrary to standard business practices. They promote certain principles of transformation, such as less hierarchical structures, the minimization of capital requirements and decreased profit orientation. They focus on small-scale units requiring multi-skilled labor and greater customer participation which is related to new forms of social interaction, changing cost structures, stability impacts, growth limitation and new diffusion strategies. If traditional hierarchical structures are replaced by more democratic decision-making processes, then a greater effort will be required to clarify responsibilities and competencies, control processes, resolve conflicts and maintain the motivation of all those involved. Our research shows that, depending on the type, transformative enterprises have specific upper size limits, which, if exceeded, make social stabilization difficult. The diffusion process compatible with this follows the principle of a decentralized and autonomous multiplication of the organizational model rather than the concept of traditional entrepreneurial growth. In our contribution, we discuss the opportunities and challenges facing transformative enterprises in terms of cost effects and social diffusion based on supply chain analyses.
A project on the use of distributed registry technology to improve funding for start-ups in Japan has been considered. The project is based on the application of distributed registry technology, smart contracts, a big database of start-ups credit risk (in Japan CRDS), a local investment fund, a unified marketing and trading platform. The model of investor behavior (taking into account risk and profitability) has made it possible to show, that with growing investor confidence (individuals and households) and a certain level of profitability of startups, investing in startups will be more preferable, than a bank deposit. The features of the project have been highlighted and a conclusion has been made, that under certain conditions, the adduced scheme for financing start-ups can be used in Russia, for example, by the Industry Development Fund.
Jelena Erić Nielsen, Verica Babić, Vesna Stojanović-Aleksić, Јеlena Nikolić
Research Question: The purpose of this paper is to explore how leadership style and organizational structure characteristics influence employees’ intentions to start their own entrepreneurial ventures, ideas or projects, within an organizational setting. Motivation: The main goal is to learn how to prevent innovativeness declining in a traditional organization and make internal environment friendly for entrepreneurial initiatives and for employees with propensity to develop new ideas, aiming to create sustainable competitive position. Idea: The paper explores how identified leadership variables, initiative, pioneer, proactive behaviour and ability to communicate vision affect employees’ entrepreneurial intentions. We also analyze the organizational structure impact, testing organic design, level of centralization and formalization. For measuring employees’ entrepreneurial intentions, we use a previously validated scale and measurements, innovation, risk propensity and autonomy. Data: The data are collected using a questionnaire on a random sample of 208 respondents employed in nineteen Serbian companies. Tools: A quantitative study methodology was designed and implemented, appropriate statistical methods performed, including correlation and linear regression analyses. Findings: We have found evidence that appropriate leadership style has a positive influence on employees' entrepreneurial intentions. More specifically, there is a positive correlation between the leader’s initiative, pioneer and proactive behaviour, and the employees’ intentions to start innovative entrepreneurial ventures. The employees’ willingness to act autonomously is affected by leader’s initiative and proactive attitude, but also by ability to clearly communicate the vision. The study also reveals that organic organizational structure, decentralization and low formalization have a positive influence on employees' entrepreneurial intentions. Contribution: The study contributes to a significant degree by filling gaps in knowledge base, revealing new perspectives about relevance of both leadership style and organizational structure for encouraging organizational entrepreneurship. The analysis also provides a more fine-grained perspective about characteristics of organizational design and improves understanding of the employees’ actions depending on authority delegation, procedures and overall flexibility of organizational structure. Practical implications represent guidelines for practitioners as to how to set up structure and adjust leadership style in order to foster entrepreneurship among employees.
Ann Ogbo, Anthony Igwe, Jesse Ezeobi, Nwanneka J. Modebe · 5 authors
This paper examined the impact of social entrepreneurship on sustainability of business development in Nigeria. The objectives of the study include: to identify major evolution experienced by social enterprise in Nigeria, to identify key challenges in social entrepreneurship in Nigeria, to identify current trends in social entrepreneurship in Nigeria, and to carry out an analysis on sources of funds for financing the social entrepreneurs. Survey approach was the research design used with particular reference to selected small and medium enterprises (SME) in Nigeria. It was observed that political factors, economic factors, socio-cultural factors, cross country factors and technological factors are the major evolution experienced by social enterprise in Nigeria. It was also observed that lack of education in entrepreneurship, lack of financial assistance, comparative disadvantages to business, lack of government support and lack of skilled manpower are the key challenges in social entrepreneurship in Nigeria. The current trends in social entrepreneurship in Nigeria are social media and the role of technology, rise of decentralized micro-giving opportunities, cross-sector partnerships and government drive for an all-inclusive economic growth and development through SME. The analysis carried out on sources of funds for financing the social entrepreneurs are contributions from social entrepreneurs, subventions from government, donor supports, loans and advances and retained earnings/reserves.
Blockchain technology claims to disrupt the existing financial system, the way of doing business, and to empower ordinary citizens against an elitist economy through decentralization of the decision-making process. In the political arena, the disruptive ideology branded as ‘populism’ challenges the neo-liberal establishment. By appealing to peoples’ fears, frustrations, and dissatisfaction with the political elites, exploiting distrust in the so-called establishment, populism claims to deliver more power to the people. In this article, we draw a parallel between core foundations of political populism and those of blockchain and propose a theory of technological populism. Technological populism as reflected by blockchain platforms exploits the rhetoric of empowering the disenfranchised through decentralized decision-making process, enabling anonymity of transactions, dehumanizing trust (promoting trust in computation rather than trust in humans and institutions) as well as breaking the monopoly in the financial system and money supply. The rhetoric of empowering the disenfranchised against financial elites is not only propaganda but also a method of accumulating wealth for technocratic elites. Ultimately, the blockchain and cryptocurrency world has perfected what political populists have pioneered — unrealistic promises, turning the citizen against “the elites” only so long as they are not the elites in charge.
This dissertation addresses the assembly of organizational resources by technology ventures. We study how innovative firms acquire human and financial capital and then organize those resources, and how public policy affects that capability.\nIn the first chapter, we study the role of information in organizational decision-making for the financing of entrepreneurial ventures. We formally model a decentralized set of agents who vote strategically to allocate resources to a project with unknown outcome; they can each acquire costly information to improve their decision quality. We test our predictions in the setting of venture capital, where partners make their own angel investments outside of their employer. We find that the venture capital partners, acting independently, make riskier investments into younger firms with less educated and younger founding teams, but these investments perform better on some metrics even when controlling for investment size and stage. Geographic distance and liquidity constraints increase the probability the investment is taken up by a partner and not the VC.\nIn the second chapter, we evaluate the impact of skilled immigration on U.S. innovation by exploiting a random lottery in the H-1B visa program. Proponents argue that immigration allows firms to access technical skills and promote innovation, while opponents argue that firms substitute domestic labor for cheaper but equally or less skilled foreign labor. We find that winning an H-1B immigrant does not significantly increase patent applications or grants at the firm level, and there is pervasive use of the program in industries where patenting is not the main value-appropriation strategy.\nIn the third chapter, we study how a firm should organize the diversity of technical experience, contained within its pool of inventive human capital, for firm-level innovation. Using a sample of biotechnology start-ups, we examine the implications of alternate firm-level design regimes, drawing on both a firm-year panel structure and an inventor-year difference-in-differences empirical approach. Organizing a firm's human capital with greater across-team diversity yields increased firm-level innovation benefits as compared to organizing with greater within-team diversity. The benefits of across-team diversity stem mainly from the influence of that regime on team stability.

 
 
 This article examines whether hitherto marginalized actors, industries and innovations – such as women, services industries and service innovations – could be acknowledged by the use of a bottom-up approach in innovation research in a way that helps make public innovation support more inclusive. It is scrutinized whether the relation between context, organization and outcomes in publically financed innovation networks such as clusters and innovation systems serves to highlight how more inclusive innovation support could be designed. Four regional innovation networks promoting women’s entrepreneurship and innovation in Sweden are analyzed by a bottom-up approach, since while emphasizing decentralization and inclusion in theory, most innovation theories and policies are in practice characterized by a top-down approach, ascribing superiority to certain actors, industries and innovations while marginalizing others in a distinct – often gendered – pattern. The bottom-up approach makes it possible to expose that being a marginalized actor in public innovation support is related to the organization of entrepreneurial types of innovation systems, based on contacts established ad hoc and resources gathered from scratch, making a wider range of actors, industries and innovations relevant than in institutional types of innovation systems favored in prevalent public innovation support. By acknowledging both types of innovation systems, more inclusive innovation policies could be designed and more nuanced innovation theories could be developed.
 
 
Public sector support is important for SMEs due to the finance and stability it offers, the measures are often designed specifically to answer the problems SMEs face and they can help fill gaps in the existing capacities of the firms through the network of expertise the measures allow them to access. There has been an ongoing debate over what effect support services have on the development of assisted firms, and the initial high expectations about the effectiveness of these services now seem overoptimistic, giving rise to more critical examinations of the effectiveness of these services and the institutions involved. With 93 technology-based SMEs in North Wales during a period of relative decentralization of provision of public business services and support in Wales, this study investigates: (1) how technology-based SMEs in North Wales perceive the quality of the services provided by local or national public support organizations; (2) if gaps exist in support then how differently these gaps are perceived by high and low performing firms; and (3) what services they perceive helpful to their business performance, and how differently these services are perceived by high and low performing firms.
The entrepreneurship literature in economics and management is biased towards start-up firms. And yet, profit opportunities are imagined, evaluated, and captured by existing firms. Employees often play a key role for developing and pursuing business opportunities (Baumol, 1994; Bhardwaj, Camillus, and Hounshell 2006). In fact, modern firms increasingly encourage “intrapreneurship,” “autonomous strategic initiatives,” and “corporate venturing” at all levels of the organization (e.g., Day and Wendler, 1998; Yonekura and Lynskey, 2002; Covin and Miles, 2007; De Clercq, Castaner, and Belausteguigoitia 2007). Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), one of the most influential business books of the last two decades, deals with the difficulties facing established firms that try to innovate. To foster entrepreneurial attitudes and behavior, managers must give employees significant discretion. The need for such entrepreneurial attitudes is partly driven by deep-seated changes, sometimes placed under the rubric of the “knowledge economy” (Foss, 2005). Thus, greater variability in the environments firms confront, more emphasis on innovation as a competitive tool, an increased need to source heterogeneous knowledge inputs, and so on call for an increased reliance on decision-making within firms that is not only fast, but also adaptive and intelligent. This amounts to an increase of delegation of discretion to employees at all levels in order to make them exercise responsible judgment. Cowen and Parker (1997: 28) cogently summarize this line of thinking: Market changes are moving manufacturing farther and farther away from steady-state, low variety, long-batch production runs, relevant to Taylorist methods, to high variety and small runs … Organizations are adopting new forms of decentralization to cope with the instability, uncertainty, and pace of change of the market-place … In clusters of network working, employees of undifferentiated rank may operate temporarily on a certain task or tasks in teams. The clusters are largely autonomous and engage in decentralized decision-making and planning … They are conducive to individual initiative (“intrapreneurship”) and faster decision-taking. They facilitate organizational flexibility.
As the characteristics of rural finance is presented with small exchange quantity,high frequency,decentralizing,covering large areas and lacking of avouch condition,the rural cooperative finance credit risk strategic tends to take it as its important feature to develop revenue correlation loan and make use of correct forecast to anticipate revenue and use separate elements and big number principle to carry through credit venture management.
This paper postulates a life cycle model of university entrepreneurialism at the national level. Based on the analysis, this paper identifies two fundamental sources of such entrepreneurialism: 1) the institutional anchoring of the university of a public-private hybrid form in organization and finance; 2) decentralization of the system in such a way as to encourage a high level of competition and differentiation. We hypothesize that when national university systems grow and exhibit signs of demand overload, political pressures for system homogenization increase; system homogenization weakens both sources of entrepreneurialism and leads to decline. The sources of decline are thus unintended consequences of policy choices to cope with the side effects of demand overload within national university systems. Implications for the ascendant Chinese university system are derived.
Through the practical study with 132 small enterprises,it concludes that the concrete causes of financing difficulty of small enterprises come from two aspects,namely,the macroscopical financing system and the internal characteristics of small enterprises.It points out that the financing difficulty of small enterprises can be resolved from micro level by inserting incubator system between the credit suppliers and small enterprises.Because the financing services can be shared,decentralization can be changed into intensification,resources can be optimized,so the small enterprises' financing feeler can be extended and their internal defect can be made up.Furthermore,the resultful control can be realized,so the risk of the credit suppliers can be minimized.Finally it puts forward that the development of incubator should be deepened,the service of incubator should be located on the internal characteristics of small enterprises,and incubator should be developed to intelligent intermediary industry,and so on.
ABSTRACT Young firms grow faster through franchising than via the traditional organization. However, research shows that as much as three fourths of new franchise systems die within ten years of establishment. Although recent franchising system survival research has recognized industry as a potentially important variable, a theory for its influence has not been available. This paper develops propositions linking industry variations to the survival of franchising systems. Specifically, it suggests that franchising system survival is negatively related to the degree of decentralization of critical decision tasks, brand-space proliferation, and knowledge intensity, but positively related to labor intensity, cost of the material factor, specific investments and revenue variability. Implications of this theory for both prospective franchisors and franchisees are discussed. INTRODUCTION The study of firm growth and survival has been a central concern in entrepreneurship research. Increasing support is emerging for the view that contractual, hybrid forms of organizations such as franchising, strategic alliances, and licensing are viable alternatives to the traditional, hierarchical form of organization (e.g., Larson, 1992). In particular, franchising is seen as a means of faster growth relative to the traditional form of organization for young firms (Caves & Murphy, 1976). Franchising creates opportunities for thousands of budding entrepreneurs every year (Combs & Ketchen, 2003, p. 443), and over 200 new franchisors appear in dozens of industries (Michael, 1998, p. 162). However, Shane (1996) showed that as much as three fourths of new franchise systems die within ten years of establishment. Likewise, Bates (1998, p. 122) found that franchises are dramatically less profitable and their survival prospects are worse than those of independent business start-ups. The low rates of survival of both franchising systems as well as individual outlets seem puzzling given the popularity of franchising among new entrepreneurs. Perhaps budding entrepreneurs lack an understanding of realistic prospects of franchising. In order to prevent wastage of entrepreneurs' costly efforts, identification of variables that might influence the survival of new franchising systems is important. Although recent franchising system survival research appears to have recognized industry as a potentially influential variable (e.g., Bates, 1998; Michael, 1996; Shane, 1996), its role has been limited to a control variable. Perhaps what is needed is a theory explaining why differences in industry may be crucial to franchising system survival. This paper attempts to fill this important theoretical void. The paper begins with a brief review of franchising and its two dominant viewpoints: the resource-scarcity thesis and the administrative-efficiency thesis. In light of these theses, a theoretical framework is developed involving several factors that might lead to important industry differences influencing franchising system survival. The industry variables are: the allocation of decision tasks, brand-space proliferation, labor intensity, the cost of the material factor, specific investment, revenue variability, and knowledge intensity. Propositions are presented suggesting the effect of each variable. Finally, important implications of this framework for franchising research and practice are discussed. BACKGROUND OF FRANCHISING Franchising involves granting exclusive rights for the local sale of a service or trademarked product and receiving in return a fee and/or royalty and conformance to quality standards, price controls, and other practices (Mathewson & Winter, 1985). A franchisor thus enjoys the benefits of revenue and control without having to make the investments required for ownership. The franchisee receives many services including training, advertising and, frequently, financing or assistance in obtaining finance (Bumstien, 1968-69; Woll, 1968-69). …