The authors examine the implications of electronic shopping for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. They assume that near-term technological developments will offer consumers unparalleled opportunities to locate and compare product offerings. They examine these advantages as a function of typical consumer goals and the types of products and services being sought and offer conclusions regarding consumer incentives and disincentives to purchase through interactive home shopping vis-à-vis traditional retail formats. The authors discuss implications for industry structure as they pertain to competition among retailers, competition among manufacturers, and retailer-manufacturer relationships.

Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in

In its most abstract sense, an ecosystem is a biotic community, encompassing its physical environment, and all the interactions possible in the complex of living and nonliving components. Economics has always been about systems that explain differential output and outcomes. However, economics has generally ignored the role of entrepreneurship in economic systems, just as entrepreneurship studies have largely overlooked the role of systems in explaining the prevalence and performance of entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurial ecosystem approach has the promise to correct these shortcomings. Its two dominant lineages are the regional development literature and the strategy literature. Both lineages share common roots in ecological systems thinking, providing fresh insights into the interdependence of actors in a particular community to create new value. But studies of both regional development and strategic management have largely ignored the role of entrepreneurs in new value creation. In this paper, we will outline contributions to the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach and conclude with a promising new line of research to our understanding of the emergence, growth, and context of start-ups that have achieved great impact by developing new platforms.

The lineages of the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach

In the time since the advent of the Internet, the influence of online recommendations on consumer decision making has attracted great attention. YouTube and sites with blogging capabilities, such as MySpace and Facebook, are growing rapidly and frequently feature comments about brands and products. These comments, whether positive or negative, represent a form of user-generated content (UGC). Although recent research on peer recommendations considers electronic word of mouth, few studies focus on UGC. Using interviews with 17 participants, this study examines consumers’ opinions of online recommendations embedded in UGC compared with those of producer-generated content.

Consumers’ Reliance on Product Information and Recommendations Found in UGC

https://scholarship.rollins.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1225&context=as_facpub

Consumer Brand Relationships Research: A Bibliometric Citation Meta-Analysis

Digital entrepreneurship ecosystem: How digital technologies and collective intelligence are reshaping the entrepreneurial process

A significant gap exists in the conceptualization of entrepreneurship in the digital age. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for studying entrepreneurship in the digital age by integrating two well-established concepts: the digital ecosystem and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The integration of these two ecosystems helps us better understand the interactions of agents and users that incorporate insights of consumers’ individual and social behavior. The Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem framework consists of four concepts: digital infrastructure governance, digital user citizenship, digital entrepreneurship, and digital marketplace. The paper develops propositions for each of the four concepts and provides a theoretical framework of multisided platforms to better understand the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, it outlines a new research agenda to fill the gap in our understanding of entrepreneurship in the digital age.

The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem

A significant gap exists in the conceptualization of entrepreneurship in the digital age. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for studying entrepreneurship in the digital age by integrating two well established concepts: the digital ecosystem and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The integration of these two ecosystems helps us better understand the interactions of agents and users that incorporate insights of consumers’ individual and social behavior. The Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem framework consists of four concepts: digital infrastructure governance, digital user citizenship, digital entrepreneurship, and digital marketplace. The paper develops propositions for each of the four concepts and provides a theoretical framework of multisided platforms to better understanding the digital entrepreneurial ecosystem. Finally, it outlines a new research agenda to fill the gap in our understanding of entrepreneurship in the digital age.

The Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Not all adaptive selling to omni-consumers is influential: The moderating effect of product type

Regardless of how the concept of a ‘place’ is geographically defined, be it cities, regions, nations or otherwise, the impact of new technologies will influence much of our business, social, and economic landscapes. Evidently, there is an increasing pressure on ‘places’ to embrace new opportunities for strategic development and confront complacency that retards change. The solution may very well be in creating and sustaining entrepreneurial ecosystems where entrepreneurial action thrives and innovation drives the new economy. However, defining the entrepreneurial ecosystem remains difficult and the methods used to analyse them are inconsistent. This chapter deals with the theoretical foundations of an entrepreneurial ecosystem when it is specifically considered as a place-based change management instrument. As we introduce the variety of submitted works to this volume it becomes apparent that while capital, labour, resources and infrastructure are all important, equally, how these elements are mobilized through leadership, governance, and institutions are at least but perhaps even more important. While technology figures heavily, it is overshadowed to some extent by an emphasis on individual action and agency. Defining place-based transitions and transformations is dependent upon anchoring the point of departure. Entrepreneurship therefore has a key role to play in innovating the renewal of place and the value creation of entrepreneurs takes precedence. Technological advances offer great value creating opportunities in some places but in all, the value lies in the socioeconomic stimulus that entrepreneurs create through new opportunities for developing cohesive communities.

Fiona Sussan

Papers

The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem

The Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Not all adaptive selling to omni-consumers is influential: The moderating effect of product type

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: The Foundations of Place-based Renewal

Introspecting the spiritual nature of a brand divorce