The Mechanism of Digital Entrepreneurial Opportunity Objectification from a Perspective of Social Interaction:A Multi-case Study of Digital Creative Startups
The widespread adoption of digital technologies has provid-ed a novel business environment for entrepreneurial activities.Digital entrepreneurship,as a new domain within the entrepreneurial field in-volves leveraging digital technologies to pursue opportunities for creat-ing and capturing value.Opportunities are core to the digital entrepre-neurial process,which refer to the possibilities to reshape paths to meet market demands and generate new market needs using digital technolo-gies.In the volatile digital market environment,the ability to construct objectively feasible entrepreneurial opportunities becomes pivotal for digital startups seeking to secure dynamic competitive advantages.Unlike traditional entrepreneurship,the"collective"characteristic of digital entrepreneurship poses certain limitations when explaining the construction process of digital entrepreneurial opportunities in existing studies.Therefore,it is worth further scholarly attention to examine how entrepreneurs and stakeholders co-construct digital entrepreneur-ial opportunities based on digital technologies.To date,there are no de-finitive answers regarding where digital entrepreneurial opportunities originate,or how to transform digital entrepreneurial ideas from con-ceptualizations into objectively feasible opportunities.Research into the mechanisms of digital entrepreneurial opportunity objectification remains largely unexplored.Digital creative products are characterized by high originality,rapid iterative development,and strong derivative potential.Each phase from the inception of a creative idea to the realization of an innovative prod-uct represents a gradual objectification of digital entrepreneurial oppor-tunities.Therefore,this paper selects four digital creative startups as re-search subjects,employing an exploratory multi-case study approach.It interprets the collective process mechanisms of digital entrepreneurial opportunity objectification from a social interaction perspective.The study explores the cross-level transformation mechanisms of individ-ual-team-collective opportunity beliefs,closely linking the interaction processes between digital entrepreneurial opportunities and actors.It uncovers the"black box"of mechanisms of digital entrepreneurial op-portunity objectification.The results of the case study indicate that the process of digital entre-preneurial opportunity objectification includes three stages:digital entrepreneurial idea prototyping,digital entrepreneurial idea prototype productization,and Minimum Viable Product(MVP)verification.Enabled by digital technology,information interaction,emotional inter-action,and resource interaction between digital entrepreneurial actors and stakeholders help fully leverage collective wisdom for co-creation,enhancing the effectiveness of opportunity objectification.The forma-tion of individual-team-collective opportunity beliefs is both a product of each stage and a driving force for the new stage.Specifically,infor mation and emotional interactions between digital entrepreneurs and their peers facilitate digital entrepreneurial idea prototyping,thereby forming entrepreneurs'opportunity beliefs.The transmission of entre-preneurial passion and knowledge sharing among digital entrepreneurs and their team members promotes digital entrepreneurial idea proto-type productization,leading to the formation of team opportunity be-liefs.Digital entrepreneurial actors validate MVP through information and resource interactions with stakeholders in the formation of collec-tive opportunity beliefs.Interactions between digital entrepreneurial actors and the environment further strengthen these collective opportu-nity beliefs,thus completing the process of digital entrepreneurial op-portunity objectification.Overall,digital entrepreneurial opportunity objectification is a three-stage dynamic iterative process,with each stage containing multiple nested"verification-modification"processes.In this process,positive feedback from stakeholders will help to form opportunity beliefs at different levels,thereby promoting the transition between stages.Conversely,if the feedback is negative,the idea may be abandoned or modified and subjected to a new round of verification.This paper has significant theoretical and managerial implications.It contributes to the extant literature in three important ways:first,this research contributes to extending the studies of opportunity objectifi-cation from stable traditional contexts to the dynamic digital context,opening the black box of mechanisms of digital entrepreneurial oppor-tunity objectification across various levels,filling gaps in the research on digital entrepreneurial opportunity construction.Second,this paper introduces social interaction as a key element into the framework of digital entrepreneurial opportunity research,revealing its dynamic mechanisms in the collective process of opportunity objectification and deepening the research on the role of social interaction in constructing entrepreneurial opportunities.Third,the study divides opportunity beliefs into three levels—individual,team,and collective,and reveals how cross-level dynamic transformation of opportunity beliefs ulti-mately forms collective opportunity beliefs through a social interaction perspective,advancing the theoretical development of opportunity beliefs.In terms of digital entrepreneurial practice,this research guides digital entrepreneurial actors in effectively using diverse social interac-tions to rapidly transform entrepreneurial ideas into objectively feasible opportunities.The research findings also have significant practical im-plications for relevant management departments,such as governments,incubators,and industry associations,on how to promote the effective transformation of high-quality digital entrepreneurial ideas,thereby increasing the success rate of digital entrepreneurship.
Digital Entrepreneurial Opportunity ObjectificationSo-cial InteractionOpportunity BeliefDigital Creative StartupsDigital Technology
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