Digital Entrepreneurship and Disruptive Innovation: Intersections of Regional Development, Innovation Systems, and Sustainability

A new generation of entrepreneurs are leveraging artificial intelligence, data analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and other revolutionary technologies for greater social and environmental good. These digital entrepreneurs are developing disruptive solutions to the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time. Yet, behind every case of a successful digital entrepreneur is a wider network of governments, startup incubators and accelerators, incumbent firms, universities and other actors that form a regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Through in-depth case studies, this book explores how digital entrepreneurs across various geographic regions use disruptive innovation within their regional entrepreneurial ecosystems to leverage digital technologies that create and develop novel business solutions crucial to meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Exploring the perspectives of digital entrepreneurs themselves, each chapter in this book presents a case study that reveals how cultural differences and local socio-economic factors enable digital entrepreneurship driven by disruptive innovation.

This book offers insights and recommendations through the stories of digital entrepreneurs across geographic regions for researchers, graduate students, practitioners and public- and private-sector leaders on harnessing the combined power of disruptive innovation and regional entrepreneurial ecosystems to fuel regional economic growth and sustainable development.

Jordi Diaz, DBA, is the Dean of EADA Business School Barcelona and director of the Executive Academy of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD Global). Dr. Diaz holds an Executive Doctorate of Business Administration (EDBA) from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech Business School (France), a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from EADA Business School, and professional certificates from Harvard Business School.

Daphne Halkias, PhD, is Dean of Doctoral Programs at EIM - European Institute of Management, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Center for Policy and Competitiveness at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech Business School, and a Fellow at Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. She is a Research Affiliate at the Cornell Center for the Social Sciences, Cornell University, and CEO and Founder of Executive Coaching Consultant.

Tatiana Harkiolakis, M.Sc., is a DBA candidate at ISC Paris Business School and a Research Fellow at the Center for Policy and Competitiveness at Ecole des Ponts ParisTech Business School. She is also the Director of Communications at Executive Coaching Consultants and holds an M.Sc. in Communications and Media from the London School of Economics and Political Science.