Page - 298 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

challenges, expanding renewable energy or improving health (Bundesverband Deutsche Startups 2018). Start-ups are able to challenge established companies by disrupting “existing conventional productionmethods, products, market structures andconsumptionpatterns, and replace themwith superior environmental and social products and services” (Schaltegger andWagner2011,p. 223). If this trend is tobe harnessed and further encouraged, it is crucial to understand (a) what motivates these entrepreneurs, (b) whether their ventures actually end up providing a sus- tained and positive impact towards the transition to a “sustainable and resilient path” as laid out by theUnitedNations (General Assembly of theUnitedNations 2015; Apostolopoulos and Liargovas 2018), and (c), if not, what can be done to assist or direct them towards providing suchbenefit.At present, research into these questions remains scarce (Moon 2018). To conclude, we contend that digital entrepreneurshipmight have the biggest impact on the SDGs, if it is successful to utilize three concepts: open innovation, future and emerging technologies, and social entrepreneurship.Toshowhowtheseconceptscanhelpdigital entrepreneurs achieve theirgoals,wewill explaineachof the threeconcepts andpresent examples as case studies of impactful implementations.While every single concept in itself can help elevate digital entrepreneurship in a meaningful way, we argue that a combinationof all threemayhave thebiggest impact on the challenges linkedwith the SDGs, which shall be elaborated using SDG-3. 2.1 Open Innovation as a KeyDriver for Digital Entrepreneurship to Enhance SDGs Open innovation provides a central element in speeding up the digitalization in the healthcare sector through the development and implementation of innovative technologies.As theUnitedNationsConference onTrade andDevelopment stated (2017), we need “digitally enabled open and collaborative innovation: Fostering open, digital collaborations. Such innovation approaches draw on and recombine multiple sourcesand formsofknowledge, especially throughdigitallyenabledopen collaboration”. However, as von Geibler et al. (2019, p. 20) argue, “this early innovationstageproves tobeachallenge for corporatepractitioners and innovators, largely due to the concept’s intangible, qualitative nature and the lack of data”. Open Innovation evolved into an approach thatmany incumbentfirmsuse regu- larly.Theydonot rely solelyonknowledgegeneratedwithin thecompany,but also facilitate knowledge outside their company to innovate (Bogers andWest 2012). Chesbrough (2003) argues that the border betweenfirms and their immediate intel- lectual environment is not impermeable and therefore enables companies to acquire new knowledge. Sources of valuable knowledge for innovation can be customers, suppliers, and universities (Dahlander and Gann 2010; Brunswicker and Van- haverbeke 2015). Start-ups face different challenges than incumbentfirms, but can just as well facilitate open innovation to succeed. They often lack intangible (e.g. technological expertise) andfinancial resources (Baumet al. 2000) and are seldom able to formstrong strategic alliances (FreemanandEngel 2007).Byopeningup to Digital Entrepreneurship for the “Decade of Action” 307