Entrepreneurship in the Open Space: a New Dynamic for Creating Value?

Abstract

Entrepreneurship as a socially engaged and responsible movement is increasingly conceptualised as creating multiple sources of value: social, environmental, technological, cultural as well as financial, all contributing to wider economic performance. There is rapid growth in the availability and expectation of ‘Open’ tools and resources, including innovation; data; research access; source code; educational and learning materials; and government. There is increasing interest in their potential for value creation, requiring research attention and clarity of what ‘Open’ means in this context.

This chapter explores three dimensions of the ‘Open Space’ of freely available resources for entrepreneurship: 1. What is ‘Open’ in the context of entrepreneurship? 2. Why is Open Entrepreneurship important for conceptualisation, education and practice? 3. Can Open Entrepreneurship provide significant new opportunities for innovation, value creation, and learning, and if so, how can these be realised?

The chapter defines ‘Open Entrepreneurship’ (OE) as a unifying approach for value creation through a conceptual model combining ‘Open’ tools and resources. Open resources for digital and data-led entrepreneurship offer conditions for new, pervasive and distributed forms of value-creating entrepreneurial activity. These can create learning environments with rich access to data and resources, innovative connections, and opportunities for co-creating value in multiple forms. This learning-centred approach builds on the concept of entrepreneurship as an educational philosophy of value creation for others. Without this, there are risks that entrepreneurial education, and the capabilities of micro-business owners and managers, may lag the development of an Open digital economy, rather than creating new forms of Open entrepreneurship.