Innovation Entrepreneurship and Venture Development

Innovation entrepreneurship and venture development is the process of identifying new business opportunities to create viable products or services. It requires planning, risk-taking, leadership, and hard work.

Many factors at both micro- and macro-levels influence entrepreneurial activity in emerging economies. This outcome-oriented program is designed to connect the theory of innovation and entrepreneurship with practice.

HR Innovation Teams

HR leaders can support innovation by incentivizing employees to generate ideas and allowing for time and space to develop creative concepts. For example, some companies allow their employees to devote 20% of their workday to projects they want to pursue. Others set aside themed rooms for brainstorming sessions and offer free swag for participants.

Innovation entrepreneurship helps companies respond to current and future market trends and positions them to grow and succeed in their industries. It also encourages design thinking and fosters creativity in the workplace.

For innovation entrepreneurship to thrive in your business, HR leaders should create an environment that encourages experimentation and risk-taking while maintaining a culture of integrity and fairness. This includes creating a transparent feedback and recognition program that rewards employees for their efforts. For example, some employee recognition software solutions can offer digital badges, company merch and more to motivate teams to reach their innovation goals. And, as a strategic business partner, HR can help ensure that policies and processes don’t limit employee innovation.

Digital Business Strategies

The digital transformation of business is accelerating, and companies must rapidly innovate or risk being left behind. The goal of this executive program is to equip you with advanced knowledge and skills to foster innovation at a company-wide level, shape business practices with unwavering humanity in the midst of technology fueled disruption, and build for what’s next.

The six research papers that comprise this special issue contribute to an emerging understanding of digital business strategy, a term we define as organizational strategy formulated and executed by leveraging digital resources to create differential value. These papers also examine business models for digital products and explore how a firm’s competitive industry environment and customer connections affect digital business strategies.

The qualitative articles, such as Gupta and Bose’s longitudinal study of two digital start-ups in the crowdfunding domain, offer new theoretical insights about the dynamics of digital business transformation. Similarly, Leong, Tan, and Faisal’s action research study of a disadvantaged community offers a powerful account of emancipation through digital entrepreneurship.

Maximizing Existing Products

A company must innovate in order to keep up with the fast-paced world. This innovation can take many forms, from coming up with new products to finding better ways to distribute and sell existing ones. It’s what sets entrepreneurs apart from their peers and keeps companies from becoming stale and irrelevant.

Entrepreneurs often run into challenges when bringing their innovations to market. These obstacles can include demand-side barriers like lack of customer awareness or resistance to the product; and supply-side barriers such as the inability to adapt the technology to market demands.

Entrepreneurs may overcome these barriers by focusing on specific markets. For example, Steve Ells built his Chipotle chain around organic food by opening stores near universities and attracting students who were aware of the dangers of chemicals in conventional chicken. The result was a successful business. Other entrepreneurs may also find success by repurposing existing products. A high-innovation company builds mutual adjustment into its organizational structure by providing flexible job descriptions and a culture that emphasizes employees’ ability to change roles over time.

Innovation Culture

Innovation culture encourages employees to be creative and think outside the box. It focuses on empowering employees to express themselves, take risks and be held accountable for their actions. When employees are encouraged to innovate and express themselves, it helps the company become more efficient and effective in its operations.

Innovation entrepreneurship involves three phases: identifying opportunities, developing new products and establishing the business. The process of identifying new opportunities involves creating and testing ideas to identify potential commercially viable solutions. This phase includes researching and studying existing products and their strengths and weaknesses, watching research in other industries and universities, and looking for gaps or voids in markets.

The cultural social support perspective proposes that innovation entrepreneurship thrives in a societal climate where people are friendly and cooperative with each other, providing the motivation for collaboration and helping others (Stephan & Uhlaner 2010). Laskovaia et al. (2017) tested this theory using mediation analyses and replications on the Hofstede individualism scale for robustness.