January 2021 Download this article as a PDF

Welcome to the January issue of the Technology Innovation Management Review. This issue consists of a mixture of “Insights”.

The opening paper “Enabling and Promoting Sustainability through Digital API Ecosystems” is a team collaboration between Maurizio Brioschi, Michele Bonardi, Nadia Fabrizio, Alfonso Fuggetta, Emiliano Sergio Verga, and Maurilio Zuccalà, all from Cefriel in Italy. Their research study shows “an example of successful implementation in the smart city domain” based on the Cefriel Digital Ecosystem Toolkit approach. This approach was first adopted to foster digital interoperability during the 2015 World Exposition in Milan, Italy. The authors frame their work with a goal “to combine technologies for building API-based solutions with governance processes and common participation guidelines” (pg. 4). Their strategy of data sustainability approach provides an example of how others could respond to the need of addressing the FAIR (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, Reusability) principles for data management and stewardship in the context of API ecosystems used for smart cities.

Marko Mäki and Tuija Toivola follow this up with “Global Market Entry for Finnish SME eCommerce Companies”. Their background focus on digital disruption sets the stage for a discussion of internationalization and university-business cooperation through global eCommers (eCom) prospecting. The main goals of their study were “to acquire knowledge and boost participants’ learning of fast-growing digital business models” (pg. 11), and “to increase understanding of the internationalization processes of eCom companies” (pg. 19). The authors review the literature on eCom, describe their project and share their experiences of consulting participating Finnish eCom firms in this sector. The study is an example of practical outcome oriented research.

Next, Angelo Dossou-Yovo and Christian Keen explore “SMEs and the Innovation Management Process” with their newly constructed “multi-level process conceptual framework”. The authors base their research on 11 case studies of the Montreal software industry. They use contingency and resource dependency theories to study the innovation process in SMEs. Their overall aim in the paper is “to propose a conceptual framework to manage the innovation process in small businesses” (pg. 22). One of their basic conclusions is that “innovation processes are highly interactive and involve important actors that help SMEs to innovate” (pg. 30-31). Their findings offer helpful guidelines for SME innovation managers or company founders, particularly in high tech industries.

Behrooz Khademi, Hannele Lampela, and Kosmas X. Smyrnios close out the edition by detailing “A Roadmap for Systematically Identifying Opportunities in Ecosystems Using Scientific Publications Data”. Their article presents “a methodological roadmap that utilizes scientometric and text mining techniques” (pg. 34), using data from the Web of Science database. It contains many graphs, figures, and tables for visualisation. The Nordic countries’ renewable energy ecosystem is the topical use case, for which they track documentation and research on resource saving, strategic planning, investment, and policymaking. Their roadmap aims to benefit ecosystem actors and stakeholders, across a range of social, economic, environmental, and political dimensions.

For future issues, we invite general submissions of articles on technology entrepreneurship, innovation management, and other topics relevant to launching and scaling technology companies, and for solving practical business problems in emerging domains such as artificial intelligence and blockchain applications in business. Please contact us with potential article ideas and submissions, or proposals for future special issues.

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Keywords: Digital disruption, digital ecosystem, eCommerce, ecosystem, FAIR, Global eCom, innovation, Innovation management, innovation process, internationalization, interoperability, knowledge, opportunity, roadmap, scientometrics, small business, sustainability, text mining, university cooperation