Page - (000013) - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

What if when asking “Alexa, what can I do tonight?”, travellers no longer receive the answer “I don’t know?”.Moreover, could start-ups use all tourist data freely and without restrictions to develop innovative applications for travellers at any time (GermanNational Tourist Board, n.d.)? These similar questions are cur- rently being asked by those responsible for tourismmarketing and product devel- opment, such as destination management organisations (DMOs) in Germany (German National Tourist Board), and are addressed in the Chapter “Digital Entrepreneurship and Agile Methods—A Hackathon Case Study”, which is authored by Nancy Richter and Djanina Dragoeva. In particular, regarding the travel destination of Thuringia, “Wewere looking for a way tomake the data of Thuringian tourism up-to-date, findable and freely usable and thus provided the path for open innovation and new technologies” (Detlef Klinge, Thüringer Tourismus GmbH, retrieved from the German National Tourist Board, n.d.). To meet these challenges, theDMO relies on the processing of open data in a tourist content architecture and on entrepreneurial management methods, such as the hackathon. This chapter answers the question of how these technologies and management methods must be implemented in destination management organisa- tions so that they generate sustainable competitive advantages and customer ben- efits for the respective travel destination. Avastmajorityofdigital start-ups leverage the leanstart-upapproach tovalidate the attractiveness of their venture, reduce investing into scarce resources and structure the venturing process. Chapter “Business Model Development and Validation in Digital Entrepreneurship”, authored by Lutz Göcke and Robin Weninger, proposes a structured approach, or the venture pyramid, to (in)validate digital businessmodels in the face of highuncertainty. Furthermore, different types of digital businessmodels with patterns ofminimumviable products aremapped, and twocase studiesofGermanstart-ups that appliedaprocessof rigorous iteration and learning to their venture process are presented. A robust discussion is offered of the specific challenges that digital entrepreneurs face when validating their platform business model concept. In nearly every industry, platform business models evolve by optimising costs or by leveraging a significant increase in innovativeness. Many entrepreneurs choose this businessmodel to create and capture value, but while platformbusinessmodelshavedemonstrably immensegrowthpotential, they alsopresent unique challenges for early stage start-ups.Chapter “Development and Validation of Platform Businesses in Digital Entrepreneurship”, written by Lutz GöckeandPhilipMeier, offers aprocessualmodel basedon theventurepyramid to validate the critical assumptions of platformbusinessmodels.Case studies of early stage start-ups shed light on the dynamics of testing platformbusinessmodels and discuss different approaches to develop aminimally viable platform. Chapter “Blockchain as an Approach for Secure Data Storage on Digital Consulting Platforms”, written by Sebastian Gerth and Lars Heim, examines data security in a society increasingly shaped by digital technologies. Notably, data security andprivacy in health-related services are considered since highly sensitive data are stored and processed during health-related online consultations. This Introduction xiii