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Technology entrepreneurship is an established concept in academia. However, recent developments in the context of digital entrepreneurship call for revision and advancement. The multiple possible combinations of technology and entrepreneurship have resulted in a diversity of phenomena with significantly different characteristics and socio-economic impact. This article is focused on the identification and description of technology entrepreneurship in times of digitization. Based on current examples, we identify and describe characterizations of technology entrepreneurship, digital technology entrepreneurship, and digital entrepreneurship. With this new delineation of terms, we would like to foster discussion between researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers on the impact of digitization on entrepreneurship, and set a future research agenda.
Keywords: technology entrepreneurship, digital technology entrepreneurship, digital entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, definitions, technology Innovation
Introduction
Do we need another definition in entrepreneurship research? We argue that at least technology entrepreneurship deserves a revision. Indeed, Mosey, Guerrero, and Greenman (2017) have stated that, after two decades of interest and research contributions in the field, we all can now take stock of what has been achieved, what needs to be revisited, and what is still missing. We have reached a consolidation stage in technology entrepreneurship research.
A seminal contribution to the definition of technology entrepreneurship as a field was made by Tony Bailetti. His definition highlights that technology entrepreneurship is "an investment in a project that assembles and deploys specialized individuals and heterogeneous assets that are intricately related to advances in scientific and technological knowledge for the purpose of creating and capturing value for a firm" (Bailetti, 2012). Around the time when Bailetti's article was published, the largest ever initial public offering (IPO) from a technology company took place: Facebook raised over $16 billion USD upon becoming listed in the stock market (Rusli & Eavis, 2012). In subsequent five years after Facebook became a public company, we have witnessed a mobile and social media revolution (Hanna et al., 2011). This revolution has not only changed how organizations connect with customers, but it has also transformed the meaning of technology entrepreneurship.
To make sense of how much digitization has changed technology entrepreneurship, we propose to examine the topic from three different angles: the underlying technological opportunity, the entrepreneurship process, and the resource acquisition. Prior research has highlighted the entrepreneur-opportunity nexus,...