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About 50% of innovations achieve commercial success in advanced countries. The number is much lower in emerging markets. Examining the impact of the digital environment on product success is crucial. The purpose of the study is to investigate the direct effects of disruptive technology (quality, efficiency and congruity) on digital entrepreneurship (new product development, cost-effectiveness and internationalization) and indirect moderating effects of the digital environment (data security, customer privacy and search engine optimization [SEO] algorithm) between disruptive technology and digital entrepreneurship.

This is a qualitative study by design. It uses the literature review method and the theory of disruption and competitive advantage to construct the six hypotheses linking the variables – disruptive technology, digital environment and digital entrepreneurship.

The study’s conceptual model proposes that disruptive technology leads to digital entrepreneurship; however, the digital environment moderates the relationship between disruptive technology and digital entrepreneurship in emerging markets.

The conceptual study has research implications for scholars. It constructs a conceptual framework and develops six hypotheses contextualized in emerging markets. The framework can be empirically tested across countries to validate the hypotheses and develop a competing model to explain more variance in digital entrepreneurship. This study also presents the possibility of analytical generalization.

This study has practical implications for digital entrepreneurs in emerging markets or those wishing to enter emerging markets. The main implication is that disruptive technology leads to digital entrepreneurship; however, the digital environment moderates it. Thus, digital entrepreneurs need to consider digital environmental effects such as data security, customer privacy and SEO. Given that two-thirds of the world is classified as an emerging market, the impact of the study is noticeable for practitioners as well.

Disruptive technology fosters digital entrepreneurship, which creates opportunities for innovative solutions for society worldwide. It breaks down the barriers to entry and promotes inclusivity by providing products and services that were unavailable before. Digital products are also economical and environmentally friendly, making them more suitable for people in emerging markets.

This study makes three new contributions. First, it proposes that disruptive technology leads to digital entrepreneurship and that the digital environment moderates the relationship between disruptive technology and digital entrepreneurship. Second, from a theoretical viewpoint, it develops a theoretical testable framework, links the variables and proposes the six hypotheses. Finally, the most significant contribution of the study is the identification of the digital environment variable and its dimensions – security, privacy and SEO algorithm – and its comparison between advanced countries and emerging markets.

The study aims to embrace the lingering call for more empirical studies that can theorize the role of digital platforms in digital entrepreneurship. Hence, this study seeks to reveal the liminal space entrepreneurial experience of third-party application developers, by investigating how the platform boundary resources promote third-party entrepreneurial actions, as they transition through the disoriented, uncertain and ambiguous processes of digital entrepreneurship development.

To conduct this investigation, an expert interview qualitative method was used. This approach is a well-established technique in the field of social sciences, which allowed a detailed exploration of the theory of liminality. Liminality refers to the transitional phase that individuals or groups experience when moving from one social or cultural context to another. The expert interview method is appropriate for this study because it involves engaging with knowledgeable individuals who have extensive experience and expertise in the subject area being investigated. Through in-depth and unstructured interviews, the experts were able to provide valuable insights and perspectives about the phenomenon investigated.

The research findings demonstrate that digital platform boundary resources play a significant role in the behaviour of third-party developers’ who engage in the development of digital entrepreneurship in today’s market. The study highlights three ways that show how these resources (software development kit (SDK), API, integrated development environment (IDE), libraries, frameworks) enable third-party developers to create new applications that are used to pursue entrepreneurship in a digital platform, leading to increased user engagement and revenue generation.

The research addresses the critical roles of digital platform boundary resources in digital entrepreneurship development processes. Also, using liminality theory, the research explicated the core experiences of third-party developers as they navigated the challenges and ambiguities experienced in the pursuit of entrepreneurship. Thus, contributing to the existing body of knowledge in literature and practice.

Given the remarkable increase in entrepreneurial activities initiated by women in the Egyptian context in addition to the scarcity of empirical studies on digital self-employment there, the authors of the present paper aim to identify what motivates women to engage in digital entrepreneurship, and to identify how those women establish their digital entrepreneurial activities.

The authors employed a qualitative research method through semi-structured interviews with 30 women entrepreneurs who own and manage digital businesses. Thematic analysis was subsequently used to determine the main ideas in the transcripts.

The authors have found that enjoying absolute independence, securing more time for family, guaranteeing an independent source of income in addition to the ease of accessing extensive online markets are the main motives behind the engagement of women in the Egyptian context in digital entrepreneurship activities. Moreover, the authors have also asserted that the minimal training and government support stimulate women entrepreneurs there to start and continue their digital business activities informally.

This paper contributes by filling a gap in entrepreneurship studies in which empirical studies on establishing and managing digital entrepreneurship among women in developing economies has been limited so far.

This study aims to investigates the impact of felt obligation for constructive change, constructive voices on social media and social media knowledge competence on digital social entrepreneurship among Indonesian youth.

This study uses Hayes’ process model to assess the stated hypotheses using survey data gathered from 489 Indonesian youth.

Youth with elevated social media knowledge competency might display diminished motivation to participate in digital social entrepreneurship, even when their felt obligation for constructive change remains robust. While promotive voice on social media mediates the relationship between felt obligation and digital social entrepreneurship, the notable absence of a mediating role for prohibitive voice on social media contradicts traditional Positive Youth Development (PYD) theory

This research challenges conventional PYD theory by suggesting that youth with high social media knowledge competence may have reduced motivation for digital social entrepreneurship, despite a strong commitment to positive change. While promotive voice behavior mediates the relationship between felt obligation and digital entrepreneurship, the absence of mediation by prohibitive voice contradicts traditional PYD principles. This study expands the PYD framework, highlighting the challenges related to social media knowledge competence and prohibitive voice in engaging youth advocates for digital social entrepreneurship. It emphasizes the need to adapt PYD theory to address the complexities of the digital age effectively.

The findings offer valuable insights for students, aspiring young entrepreneurs, educators and policymakers interested in advancing the development of digital social entrepreneurship in a developing nation.

This research offers valuable practical implications for policymakers, educators and society. It suggests the importance of nurturing a sense of responsibility among young individuals, enabling their active involvement in addressing issues like environmental degradation and discrimination. Creating supportive online communities for collaboration and constructive voice behavior on social media can provide judgment-free environments. Additionally, advocating for partnerships between youth and various stakeholders can boost resources, mentorship and funding opportunities, enhancing the prospects for impactful digital social entrepreneurship.

This study contributes to an underexplored area in the field of social entrepreneurship by investigating the intersection of youth, digital advocacy and digital social entrepreneurship. The incorporation of the PYD theory introduces a novel dimension to recent research in this domain

As an important engine of economic growth, the digital economy is bringing new opportunities for the promotion of entrepreneurship. However, key questions regarding the extent of the effect of the digital economy on entrepreneurship remain unanswered. This study examines how the digital economy influences entrepreneurship in China using provincial data from 2011–2020, applying convergence tests and spatial econometric models.

Based on theoretical analysis and using macro provincial data covering the period of 2011–2020, we adopt a diversified empirical analytical method and apply a combination of the convergence trend test, spatial auto correlation test, and spatial Durbin model to test the research hypotheses.

First, there is spatial correlation between the digital economy and entrepreneurship. Second, the overall trend of China’s digital economy shows s convergence, with the whole country and the eastern region showing absolute β convergence and the whole country as well as the central and western regions showing β conditional convergence. Third, the digital economy can significantly promote entrepreneurship and has spatial spillover effects. Moreover, higher education has a negative moderating effect on the process of digital economy empowering entrepreneurship.

Studying the spatially correlated impacts of the digital economy on entrepreneurship enhances our understanding of its contribution to economic growth. Policy-makers can use these findings to develop targeted digital infrastructure investments in lagging provinces, guide entrepreneurs to better grasp the opportunities of the digital economy, and provide support for innovation and entrepreneurship. The findings also could offer Chinese experience that can be used to guide developing countries in utilizing the digital economy to enable entrepreneurship.

This paper expands and enriches the analytical focus on digital economy-empowered entrepreneurship and complements the current theoretical research on the moderating effect of the digital economy in empowering entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to explore the effects of parents’ support factors on Chinese university students’ digital entrepreneurship motivation on live streaming platforms. Based on the Social support theory, this study divides influencing factors into emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal aspects. Meanwhile, considering the impact of China’s regional differences, the paper refers to the Regional difference theory and performs a multi-group analysis to assess the differences based on Chinese university students’ regional backgrounds.

By testing 556 samples based on the partial least squares path modelling and variance-based structural equation modelling, all support factors parents provide can stimulate Chinese university students’ digital entrepreneurship motivation.

Based on the multi-group comparison, parents’ informational support exerts a more substantial influence on the digital entrepreneurship motivation for university students from central and east regions rather than those from the western region, and parents’ instrumental support exerts a lower influence on digital entrepreneurship motivation for east university students than for west university students.

This paper applies the Social support theory as a theoretical framework to divide the impact factors, and it uses the Regional difference theory as a guide for the multi-group analysis of correlations, which is significant for online entrepreneurial motivation research and a better understanding of student groups. In addition to testing the hypotheses, the study also measures the importance–performance map analysis to explore additional findings of influencing factors and discuss managerial implications.

Existing research of modern literature have shown that the phenomenon of digital entrepreneurship is lacking in robust theoretical foundations on several occasions. This article is a comprehensive literature study that focuses on the phenomena of digital entrepreneurship and offers views on the subject to provide insights into recent advancements in the area.

In order to achieve a conception of the phenomena, using the PRISMA flow chart, the significant findings were organised into themes, contexts and approaches. A comprehensive evaluation of the relevant previous research was carried out. Both the Web of Science and Scopus were utilised to locate, extract, select and evaluate relevant papers based on the keywords found during the search. In the end, papers from 92 different publications that are indexed by SSCI were chosen for this investigation.

This comprehensive literature analysis was to identify current research routes on digital entrepreneurship. In conclusion, this study generates outcomes that describe the process by which digital entrepreneurship are recognised and discussed: digital business models; digital entrepreneurship process; platform tactics; technology adoption; entrepreneurship and digital business.

By setting the framework for additional research development and motivating scholars to pursue this issue, the study contributes to the understanding of the conceptualisation of digital entrepreneurship.

Global environmental and social threats challenge humans’ well-being and the survival of posterity. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) transformed the industry sector, enabling process automation and scalability, increasing manufacturers’ productivity, efficiency, and profitability, and supporting manufacturing innovation and firms’ competitive advantage. Despite this, the I4.0 paradigm, as currently conceived, does not fit for purpose in the context of the climate crisis and planetary emergency, nor does it address deep social tensions.

Therefore, a new revolution focusing on human and environmental needs is strongly required to address society’s economic and social problems. Combining digitalization and social purposes may address local, national, and international issues by involving a human-centered perspective in traditional business-oriented entrepreneurship.

Depending on the above, this chapter provides an in-depth understanding of Digital Entrepreneurship (DE), Digital Social Entrepreneurship (DSE), and how entrepreneurs may employ digital technologies to reach business and social aims.

The expansion of new technologies has induced the digital revolution and paved the way for an innovation-based economy. Digitalization, while blurring real and virtual environments, acts as an incentive for innovation and has been regarded as a tool to tackle the crisis. Its particular acceleration was caused by the lockdown regulations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Social entrepreneurship searches for innovative methods, tools and models to solve pressing social problems. The concept suggests applying business models for implementing social missions. Revenue generated from commercial activities is spent to solve social challenges caused by market imperfection, government inefficiency, disasters, pandemics, wars and economic crises. Advancing technologies, on the one hand, present opportunities for social enterprises and, on the other hand, involve risks to employment, data protection, transformed business model and strategies and changes in society's lifestyle and impose costly digital technologies to be adopted. Social entrepreneurs can create social value by using digital technologies that allow them to reach remote customers, investors or beneficiaries overcoming geographical boundaries or time differences. Yet digitalization can pose a threat to existing jobs as they become redundant; it transforms them or gives rise to new jobs while demanding technological skills and digital literacy. Moreover, enhanced digitalization and effective governmental actions set the stage for the decline of social business. The chapter explores the influence of digitalization on social entrepreneurship and discusses the potential of digital transformation for social enterprises. It examines the risks and opportunities that bring accelerated digitalization to social entrepreneurship.

The growing uses of digital technologies have been creating several new business opportunities. Recently, a new concept has emerged in the literature, the “digital entrepreneurship ecosystem” (DEE). However, it has been empirically understudied. Thus, this study aims to analyze the influence of DEE on entrepreneurial activity. The meta-organization theory was used as a perspective of analysis. A quantitative methodology was applied in a sample that includes data from 28 European countries through the generalized method of moments. It was concluded that the DEE pillars, informal and formal institutions, market conditions, physical infrastructure, human capital and talent and networking and support positively influence entrepreneurial activity. It was also found that the variables knowledge, creation and dissemination and finance have a negative impact on entrepreneurial activity. Several theoretical and empirical contributions are also left for the various stakeholders. The present study is original, as no known studies analyze the influence of DEE on entrepreneurial activity in European countries from the perspective of meta-organization theory.