The Genome of Digital Entrepreneurship: A Descriptive Framework

The study of entrepreneurship literature has highlighted the presence of a number of antecedents of successful initiatives at individual, organizational, and ecosystem level. Such conditions assume more peculiar meaning, relevance, and dynamics in the context of technology-based ventures. In them, the entrepreneurial process is conceived, designed, and undertaken in a landscape of digital platforms and multi-stakeholder communities that interact within digital ecosystems. In such an endeavor, the objective of the chapter is to define the multiple meanings of digital entrepreneurship as well as the distinguishing features and “dimensions” of successful digital entrepreneurship. Using theory and practical evidence, a set of key success factors and enabling or facilitating conditions are extracted and organized along a process-based view showing the different stages and steps of the entrepreneurial roadmap. The study is undertaken using a combined desk, premarket, and market view of the entrepreneurial process. The final purpose is to derive the digital entrepreneurship “genome” as well as the key activities for its effective management. While a genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes, and contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism, the idea of the digital entrepreneurship genome is to identify and classify the DNA of successful digital entrepreneurship. This is done by providing an initial reference framework useful for further theory and practitioner development. In theory, the study can be a knowledge platform for investigating the antecedents for the success of digital entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, for practitioners, the chapter provides a reference guide and management checklist to design and implement more effective initiatives aimed to facilitate, nurture, and develop successful entrepreneurial processes in digital settings.