Page - 300 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

that entrepreneurs can exploit today or where entrepreneurship can profitably contribute to the development or implementation of future technologies. Thinking ahead and implementing future technologies can give entrepreneurs a competitive edge or even enable them to create entirely new markets. So-called future and emerging technologies (FETs) are also part of the “Horizon 2020” programme by the European Union with the goal to “create a fertile ground for responsible and dynamic multidisciplinary collaborations on future technologies and for kick-starting new European research and innovation ecosystems” (Horizon 2020, 2018, p. 4). Future and emerging technologies are self-evidently complex and not widely known and implemented. Implementing them requires a strong strategic focusand theability to innovatebymeansof tools that arecurrentlynot available in the mass market. Moreover, deeper factors are necessary to obtain economic and social value from technology.Generating technology alone is insufficient andmust also be broadly disseminated, and then absorbed and put to work before its full value could be realized, as Chesbrough (2019) argues. To get a short overview of presumably impactful FETs, theWorld Economic Forum (2020) created an over- view that we adopted (Table 1) and that shows not only how FETs like artificial intelligence and quantum technologies will potentially shape our future, but also how theywill affect the different SDGs. While we cannot go into detail regarding the different technologies and their respective effects on society, we will focus on two major technological concepts thatweassumewill have tremendous impact on achieving theSDGsandwhichwe will take up and reflect in our case studies (seeChap. 4):QuantumComputing and Blended Reality. Although it might sound puzzling, quantum technologies are already wide- spread: “computers, data networks and themajority ofmedical imaging techniques couldnothavebeenachievedwithoutquantumeffects.This isbecause components suchas transistors, diodesand lasersallmakeuseofprinciplesofquantumphysics” (Federal Ministry of Education and Research 2018, p. 6). These are examples of first-generation quantum technologies that started as scientific endeavours which were then implemented in a myriad of ICTs and everyday devices that we use today. Almost a century after the field of quantum physics was created in Central Europe, an increased understandingof those quantum technologies is nowcreating newopportunities. AsKrutzik andShamsrizi (2020) outline, the “second quantum revolution”will massively impact the twenty-first century, and is widely seen as “[thatwhich] comes after the digital transformation”. Themanifold areas inwhich this impact can be seen include “measuring devices with much higher precision, vastly enhanced data communication security, and […] higher-performance satel- lites and computers” (Federal Ministry of Education and Research 2018, p. 6). Quantum technologies and their specific applications are based on quantum prin- ciples that, in turn, exploit the unique physical principles of the quantumworld. The second example of a potentially impactful FET is the concept of so-called blended reality: Many Health and Exergames use virtual or augmented reality to promote active living and exercise despite the still widely held preconception of gaming being an “unhealthy” (or at least not health-positive) activity. The popular Digital Entrepreneurship for the “Decade of Action” 309