Guillermo Jesus Larios Hernandez

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to analyze the country-level causal configurations of digital enablers that result in entrepreneurial innovation in new ventures. Entrepreneurial innovation is a complex phenomenon that draws on a combination of context-dependent causal conditions, which explain the configurations of external factors that integrate into the entrepreneurial process. In this paper, we focus on the contextual role of information and communication technologies (ICT) from an organizational center-edge approach.Design/methodology/approach: This study employs case-oriented techniques, specifically fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA), to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions that lead to entrepreneurial innovation. A dataset comprising 61 countries was merged from the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in order to explore the causal combinations of ICT adoption, online transactions business-to-business, business model innovation and organizational innovation.Findings: The fsQCA demonstrates that entrepreneurial innovation can be attributed to two causal configurations. The first configuration includes ICT adoption, online business-to-business transactions and the absence of organizational innovation. The second configuration is characterized by ICT adoption, online business-to-business transactions and business model innovation. The NCA reveals that the conditions in question possess varying degrees of importance, with each condition exerting a distinct degree of influence on the generation of varying levels of entrepreneurial innovation. The case-oriented techniques employed in this research paper have yielded preliminary insights into the relationship between digital enablers and entrepreneurial innovation, particularly in groups of countries with varying degrees of necessity to these enablers.Practical implications: Our research provides a framework for the development of more effective digital strategic mixes for each identified group of countries. It also raises theoretical questions about the national conditions that encourage a particular digital enabler to stimulate a specific form of entrepreneurial innovation in new ventures.Originality/value: In lieu of pursuing definitive causal explanations, this study proposes alternative configurations. While fsQCA demonstrates that entrepreneurial innovation is contingent upon distinctive causal conditions, extending the analysis to NCA reveals the level of necessity required for a condition to yield varying degrees of entrepreneurial innovation. The integration of fsQCA and NCA offers a more nuanced understanding of context-dependent factors that define entrepreneurial innovation in new ventures than fsQCA alone.

Based on experiences in China where rural development has reputedly been accelerated through use of its e-commerce platforms to create Taobao Villages, Chinese digital conglomerate Alibaba has sought to export its vision of “inclusive globalisation” to other economies in the Global South. Its initiatives intended to reduce inequality by specifically supporting small enterprises. Some research has already charted its multi-dimensional Electronic World Trade Platform approach. However, its more narrowly-focused Digital Villages approach, currently being implemented in Latin America, has still not been analyzed. Drawing on data from interviews and documentary sources, this article analyses the activities of Atomic88, an Alibaba subsidiary in Mexico, which (initially) focused on digitally-enabled development of small enterprise. It finds that Alibaba’s nascent position in an e-commerce market dominated by US and Latin American platforms led it to follow a quite different path from the Chinese Taobao Village Model. It sought out the action areas – training and consultancy – that would not directly compete with incumbents, and worked as an indirect facilitator of local actors, rather than directly intervening. While short-term inequality-reduction impact of Alibaba’s approach could be called into question, what it has done is build relationships with key digital economy stakeholders in Mexico. These show signs of providing valuable stepping stones toward a larger and more direct presence of Alibaba in the Mexican market.

Smart territories favor social entrepreneurship, which develops in a collaborative effort requiring networking and skilled facilitation. Coworking spaces (CWS) advance as mediating organizations that bring together entrepreneurial communities in smart territories. This chapter develops a practical framework for knowledge dissemination in CWS. It bases this framework on the analysis of three spatial characteristics that allow for the assessment of the knowledge transcendence originating in CWS, namely, physical, social, and informational spaces. To test this framework, the authors analyze the Roma-Norte corridor in Mexico City, whose results indicate the presence of two models: one constituted of private organizations that place collaboration as a secondary value, subject to their office rental services, and an umbrella model that clusters other social innovation facilitators that transcend their territorial strip. This latter meta-space model expresses positive effects in terms of knowledge spillover, suggesting the concentrated bottom-up construction process of a smart territory.