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external partners (outside in), start-ups are able to compensate for their resource constraints which can positively affect overallfirm survival (Eftekhari andBogers 2015). As Pakura (2020) points out, open innovation acts “as a driver for new organizations”,which is especially true at three levels of impact:firmdevelopment, technologydevelopment, and technologycommercialization.Thefindingsshowthat start-upscanusedifferent typesof relationshipswithavarietyofnetworkpartners in order to drive the development and commercialization of innovations. Such rela- tionships can range from loose and informal networking ties to close and formal partnerships, e.g. R&D collaborations with universities and incumbent firms. Although all types of relationships can forward innovation processes of start-ups, Pakura (2019) concludes that “synergetic partnerships, such asR&Dcollaborations withuniversitiesandincumbentfirms,createopportunitiesatall threelevels”andthat innovation benefits themost from those partnerships. Recentfindings suggest that increasedlinkstoandknowledgeflowsfromvariousexternalpartners,particularlyin uncertain environments, lead to improved innovation outcomes (West andBogers 2011). Especially towards the end of the twentieth century, the shift from closed innovation approaches to open innovationmodelswas fuelled by the emergence of digitalizationprocesses (BogersandWest2012).While theworldbecamemoreand more digitized, open innovation became a key driver for entrepreneurship and allowed for reducing research costs, spreading risks, and commercializing innova- tions faster and on a global scale. In recent years, open innovation has been suc- cessfullyapplied inmany industrycontexts, for example,healthcareand IT,aswell as in academic entrepreneurship (Siegel andWright 2015), government innovation (Gascó2017), andsocial innovationbusinesses (Nambisanetal.2019).Chesbrough (2020, p. 3) pointed out how “[o]pening upwill speed up [thefirms] internal inno- vationprocess, andallowyou to take advantageof theknowledgeof others inyour business (outside in), even as you allow others to exploit your knowledge in their business (inside out)”.Openinguphas the power to create evenmore experiments, generate more knowledge, and explore more ways to apply that knowledge for challenges (Chesbrough2020). It canhelp solvingavarietyofchallenges, but those withahigher levelof complexityprofit themost fromthis interconnectedapproach. The more complex a challenge seems, the more a firmmust engage in extensive knowledge sharing to get closer to a solution. Furthermore, opening saves time, which is critical in thehealthcare sector, especiallywhen facing apandemic (Ches- brough2020). Inaglobalpandemic,wheretimeisof theessence,opennessandopen innovation can even save lives (Chesbrough 2020). To conclude, digital entrepre- neurs that engage with large-scale problems, and/or want to impact complex ecosystems (like thehealthcare sector),must consider open innovation approaches. 2.2 FutureandEmergingTechnologiesasEnablersofDigital Entrepreneurship Towards SDGs While the future is arguably uncertain andmany believe that we are living in an “AgeofParadox” (Handy1995), thereare several futureandemerging technologies 308 M. Shamsrizi et al.