The digital economy is a main driver of change, innovation, and competitiveness for various companies and entrepreneurs. Exploring developments in these initiatives can be used as vital tools for future business success. User Innovation and the Entrepreneurship Phenomenon in the Digital Economy is an essential reference source for emerging scholarly research on innovative aspects of design, development, and implementation of digital economy initiatives, highlighting the relationship and interaction between humans and technology in modern society. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as electronic commerce, brand promotion, and customer loyalty, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, students, and managers seeking current research on the digital economy.

The process of user-centered innovation: how it can benefit both users and manufacturers and how its emergence will bring changes in business models and in public policy. Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users—both individuals and firms—often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all.The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products—most notably in the free and open-source software movement—but also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among "lead users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive. Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses—the custom semiconductor industry is one example—that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.

A trio of experts on high-tech business strategy and innovation reveal the principles that have made platform businesses the most valuable firms in the world and the first trillion-dollar companies. Managers and entrepreneurs in the digital era must learn to live in two worlds—the conventional economy and the platform economy. Platforms that operate for business purposes usually exist at the level of an industry or ecosystem, bringing together individuals and organizations so they can innovate and interact in ways not otherwise possible. Platforms create economic value far beyond what we see in conventional companies. The Business of Platforms is an invaluable, in-depth look at platform strategy and digital innovation. Cusumano, Gawer, and Yoffie address how a small number of companies have come to exert extraordinary influence over every dimension of our personal, professional, and political lives. They explain how these new entities differ from the powerful corporations of the past. They also question whether there are limits to the market dominance and expansion of these digital juggernauts. Finally, they discuss the role governments should play in rethinking data privacy laws, antitrust, and other regulations that could reign in abuses from these powerful businesses. Their goal is to help managers and entrepreneurs build platform businesses that can stand the test of time and win their share of battles with both digital and conventional competitors. As experts who have studied and worked with these firms for some thirty years, this book is the most authoritative and timely investigation yet of the powerful economic and technological forces that make platform businesses, from Amazon and Apple to Microsoft, Facebook, and Google—all dominant players in shaping the global economy, the future of work, and the political world we now face.

Assisted by globalization and the rapid application of advanced technologies, the transformative power of urbanization is being felt around the world. The scale and the speed of existing and projected urbanization poses several challenges to researchers in multiple disciplines, such as computer science, engineering, and the social sciences. Optimizing Regional Development Through Transformative Urbanization provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of applications within urban growth interventions. It also explores the strategies for new urban development tools such as the rise of new platforms for digital activities, concepts of sharing economy, collaborative economy, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cryptocurrencies, public-private partnership, and urban governance, this book is a vital reference for city development planners, decision makers, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and professionals seeking current research on the delivery of transformative urbanization changes.

The emergence of financial technology (FinTech)-related products is causing major disruptions in financial services that enable financial solutions and innovative business models resulting in the fusion of finance and smart mobile technology. As ASEAN is undergoing a paradigm shift from government-to-government (G2G) to community-to-community (C2C) relationships with the emphasis on integration and collaboration, the adoption of FinTech and its possible future directions needs to be studied further. Financial Technology and Disruptive Innovation in ASEAN provides an assortment of innovative research that explores the recent FinTech initiative in ASEAN with respect to its process, strategies, challenges, and outcomes and highlights new business models, products, and services that affect financial markets and institutions and the provision of financial services. While highlighting topics including blockchain technology, cloud computing, and mobile banking, this book is ideally designed for business executives, managers, entrepreneurs, financial and banking practitioners, policymakers, academicians, students, professionals, and researchers.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce transactions, including social commerce, are rapidly expanding, although e-commerce is still small when compared to traditional business transactions. As the familiarity of making purchases using smart devices continues to expand, many global and regional investors hope to target the ASEAN region to tap into the rising digital market in this region. The Handbook of Research on Innovation and Development of E-Commerce and E-Business in ASEAN is an essential reference source that discusses economics, marketing strategies, and mobile payment systems, as well as digital marketplaces, communication technologies, and social technologies utilized for business purposes. Featuring research on topics such as business culture, mobile technology, and consumer satisfaction, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, financial managers, business professionals, academicians, students, and researchers.

Recent global shifts in population have led to the fast urbanization of Africa. For Africa and the developing world, choosing the right policy strategies, processes, and tools are essential to turning urban centers into engines of industry and economic prosperity. Industrial and Urban Growth Policies at the Sub-National, National, and Global Levels is a pivotal reference source that examines current and evolving conditions of industrial and urban policies and their relationships around the world, especially between developed and developing economies. While highlighting topics such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, urban policy, and global common good, this publication seeks to deepen and broaden the understanding of transformation in industrial development and responses to emerging urbanization processes. This book is ideally designed for industrial planners, entrepreneurs, urban development authorities, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students.