Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are one of the most advanced blockchain-based applications. DAOs offer democratic participation in decision-making for their users, without needing traditional hierarchical reporting and management structures, through the autonomous execution of decisions through smart contracts. These characteristics have driven exponential growth in DAO projects over recent years. Their inherent democratic features make them well-suited for the public sector. Being transparent, DAOs align well with public values, such as direct democracy, privacy, and openness. In the public sector, DAOs provide opportunities to improve the internal democracy of existing government bodies, increase citizen participation, enhance ownership and management of public goods (commons), and support the development of decentralized political parties, some of which are already being experimented with. While DAOs present many opportunities for the public sector, a robust governance design is crucial to mitigate potential risks when using DAOs.

Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are one of the most advanced blockchain-based applications, posing many opportunities for new governance models and organizational forms. Over the past decade, the number of DAOs and their assets under management have grown exponentially. DAOs offer many opportunities and advantages for organizations, including internal organizational democratization, external actor participation, transparency, advanced auditability, autonomy and automation of business processes and decisions, higher efficiency, lower cost, increased trust, and new organizational and governance forms. DAOs are being used for a wide range of business purposes, and their various governance elements and choices that can be made provide significant flexibility in their deployment. Although there are many opportunities, DAOs can face multiple (governance) challenges as well. As there are many differences between DAOs as a result of the various choices, one cannot approach a DAO as one organizational form. The choices in governance setup, business purpose, and even the chosen infrastructure can influence the long-term viability and should be made carefully.

We examine how new smart technological concepts such as ubiquitous ambient intelligence (UAmI) can help strategic leaders manage the unprecedented challenges in the informational environment of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). We first recast the assumptions of exploration–exploitation paradoxes in the context of 4IR, highlighting strengths and limitations of traditional approaches in this new informational environment. Then, we introduce new technological concepts that are emerging as centerpieces of 4IR (e.g., UAmI), with the potential to address some of the information-processing limitations faced by boundedly rational strategic leaders. We organize the utility of different approaches in both traditional and 4IR contexts by distinguishing between individual and collective intelligence. Finally, we provide a tentative agenda for future research in this area. Ultimately, our chapter seeks to advance the discourse on the interface between technological (e.g., UAmI) and non-technological (e.g., strategic leadership) requirements for managing continuity and change in 4IR.

In this chapter, we explore potential synergies between Technology Assessment (TA) and Responsible Research & Innovation (RRI). We first investigate the intersection of TA and RRI by discussing their similarities and differences and then discuss how TA and RRI differ in their historical roots, objects of reflection, and timing. Building on this theoretical exploration, we share our firsthand experiences in three large European projects that revolved around studying and implementing RRI within industrial settings. By examining and leveraging potential synergies between TA and RRI, our objective is to enhance the overall governance of emerging technologies. Reflecting on our findings with the aforementioned literature streams, we highlight overarching practical challenges that one might encounter when using TA or RRI in industrial contexts. In sum, this chapter not only advances theoretical understanding but also offers practical insights with implications for future research and applications in the ever-evolving landscape of technology and innovation.

This chapter discusses principles, frameworks, and steps for designing a roadmap to implement Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in industrial practices. It is based on invaluable experience gathered from the EU-funded PRISMA project, in which a trans-disciplinary group of experts from research, industries, and policy developed guidelines to include relevant societal values in the development strategy of innovative products. These guidelines are built on existing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and quality, risk and innovation management standards and policies. Fundamentally, they provide a management standard (Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle) that could help companies to introduce structural changes in their usual business practices toward more anticipatory, inclusive, and RRI practices (responsibility-by-design). The guidelines can be used by researchers, businesses, and innovators to develop long-term strategies (roadmaps) for Responsible Innovation, which, in turn, help organizations identify and achieve technologies geared toward ethically and socially desirable outcomes.

Reverse innovation (RI) is considered as an innovation originally designed and developed for low-income customers living in severely resource-constrained environments in emerging and developing countries’ markets, with the potential to be diffused in developed markets. After more than a decade of academic studies, the potential role of RI in creating higher impact global innovations has progressively advanced. With the upsurge in research on RI, there is a need for scholars and business practitioners to retrospectively reflect on existing/current research state and prospect for future research directions. In this article, we examine the existing conceptualization and research landscape of RI to further identify and map future research directions. First, through a bibliometric review of a decade of research (2009–2019), we provide insights into the evolution of research topics in the field of RI including the identification of main research streams, influential scholars and works, important scholarly associations, and collaborative networks. Second, we combine these bibliometric findings with structural hole theory, weak ties, and social network analysis to derive future research lines on RI.

The rapid rise in blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) offers policy-makers and decision-makers new opportunities to automatically execute decisions and processes that help enhance transparency, accountability, participation and trust. Yet, many DAOs have a limited lifespan. There is little empirical evidence of the effect of governance elements on the viability of DAOs. Using 220 on-chain governed DAOs, this paper analyses how governance elements (accountability, decision/voting, and incentives) influence the viability of DAOs in the long-term. The findings show that DAOs without weighted decision-making and without incentive structures are more viable than those with weighted decision power and incentive mechanisms. This suggests that financial and share-like DAO governance elements do not or may even negatively contribute to the long-term viability of DAOs. Also, voting power distribution is found to have a statistically significant influence on DAOs’ viability. We further propose a preliminary theory that relates governance elements to the long-term viability of DAOs. These insights will help policy-makers in designing more viable DAOs. Future research should investigate how DAO objectives, the chosen deployment infrastructure and the type of users can impact the long-term viability of DAOs.

In this paper, we use an economic approach to demonstrate why ‘rational’ businesses are not likely to implement responsible innovation (RI) unless it is economically profitable. The lack of sufficient insights into economic impacts of RI is often induced by information asymmetry. Such asymmetry would hinder consumers who would otherwise be willing to pay higher prices for products or services that are assumed to be associated with RI from actually paying a higher price. We consider the introduction of a certification scheme of RI that would act as a signaling proxy to reduce information asymmetry thereby help increase economic benefits of RI implementation that can further lead to firm profitability. Furthermore, we argue that certification can help facilitate the more effective spread of RI in the business sector by broadening the focus to include not only the ethical engagement of researchers/innovators but also the profit motives of the company.

Geospatial analysis is useful for mapping the potential of renewables like solar PV. However, recent studies do not address PV’s bankable potential for which project financing can be secured. This paper proposes a framework that incorporates project finance into geospatial analyses to obtain the bankable potential of renewables. We demonstrate our framework for Indonesia, and compare the bankable potential with the socio-economic potential mostly used in literature. Using average inputs On average, the technical potential is 12,200 TWh/year and the socio-economic potential is 152.7 TWh/year if capped by 2030 demand (34% coverage). Considering PV’s financing risks, PV’s bankable potential is 16.0 TWh under current conditions if capped by 2030 demand (3.6% coverage). Both economic potentials are mainly in East Indonesia and absent on Java due to tariffs and land availability. For the bankable potential, the risk perception by banks and investors is another key influence. With a feed-in tariff of 11.5 US¢(2021)/kWh and temporary lift of import restrictions, the bankable potential is 23 TWh if capped by 2030 demand (5.2% coverage) and spreads to Java. For more widespread bankability, additional temporary measures are recommended until the PV’s costs have decreased further and trust by financial institutions has increased.

Indonesia is facing strong challenges of enhancing the innovation level of the ICT sector. There is a quickly growing domestic demand for ICT products and services in this country, however, domestic firms are not able to fully respond to this demand. This situation calls for more understanding of innovation practice in ICT firms in Indonesia, and accordingly the first part of the paper provides an analysis of firms’ internal (specifically management) and firms’ external conditions, using a survey of more than 200 ICT firms, mainly SMEs. Management factors, like ICT skills, manager’s experience, cognitive capability, and market-related skills, are positively related to innovativeness. Regarding external conditions, collaborative networks in clusters and foreign direct investment also witness a positive association with innovativeness. In the second part, key quantitative findings are enriched with expert opinion revealing a main challenge, namely, to improve quality of the ICT education system with emphasis on modern management (of entrepreneurial risk-taking).

Despite the increase in the number of blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), there is no consensus on what constitutes a DAO. This paper provides an in-depth study of DAOs by analyzing their definitions, characteristics, and emerging developments. Existing definitions in the literature hardly recognize common functionalities and intermingle coded DAOs, DAO deployment platforms, and blockchain DAOs. We developed a comprehensive DAO definition by reviewing the literature and empirically analyzing 1,859 DAOs. The findings show that many DAOs were inactive and that a threshold of 20 tokenholders is a tipping point for DAOs to survive over time and maintain sustained levels of activity. Finally, based on an empirical analysis of 9,845 perceived DAOs, we identified the emerging development of off-chain voting. This emerging development challenges the autonomous nature of DAOs. We recommend further research to investigate the effect of governance structures on their long-term sustainability and viability for both on-chain and off-chain DAOs.

Blockchain-based Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are systems for transacting and storing value by automatically executing a function without the need for trusted, centralized authorities. Participative budgeting requires voting about budget allocation by communities and is often confronted with issues in trust and transparency. Yet, DAOs are hardly used for participative budgeting. In this research, we introduce Decentralized Autonomous Citizen Participation Organizations (DACPOs). In a DACPO, data and actions are recorded and autonomously executed in a decentralized way. DACPOs can be used for enabling participative budgeting and thereby provide transparency, decrease the risks of fraud and corruption, and increase citizens' trust. The viability of DACPOs depends on a number of factors, including a minimum number of citizens who participate. In further research, factors influencing the use of DACPOs for participative budgeting can be further analyzed and tested.

Data marketplaces can fulfil a key role in realizing the data economy by enabling the commercial trading of data between organizations. Although data marketplace research is a quickly evolving domain, there is a lack of understanding about data marketplace business models. As data marketplaces are vastly different, a taxonomy of data marketplace business models is developed in this study. A standard taxonomy development method is followed to develop the taxonomy. The final taxonomy comprises of 4 meta-dimensions, 17 business model dimensions and 59 business model characteristics. The taxonomy can be used to classify data marketplace business models and sheds light on how data marketplaces are a unique type of digital platforms. The results of this research provide a basis for theorizing in this rapidly evolving domain that is quickly becoming important.

While originally intended to transform research and innovation practice, the concept of responsible research and innovation (RRI) has largely remained a theoretical, policy-oriented construct, thereby engendering a perception that RRI indicators are very different from organizational or business indicators. As there is currently limited experience with RRI in businesses, in an attempt to gain more insights into RRI in practice, this paper focuses on an exploratory assessment of key performance indicators (KPIs) in a nanomedicine project. Based on correspondence analysis, we visually demonstrate associations among KPIs of RRI dimensions and of organizational ongoing R&D dimensions implying that these two indicators are not entirely different from each other and may even be potentially aligned. This finding may stimulate the motives of the RRI uptake in practice.

As blockchain technology is maturing to be confidently used in practice, its applications are becoming evident and, correspondingly, more blockchain research is being published, also extending to more domains than before. To date, scientific research in the field has predominantly focused on subject areas such as finance, computer science, and engineering, while the area of service management has largely neglected this topic. Therefore, we invited a group of renowned scholars from different academic fields to share their views on emerging topics regarding blockchain in service management and service research. Their individual commentaries and conceptual contributions refer to different theoretical and domain perspectives, including managerial implications for service companies as well as forward-looking suggestions for further research.

There is now almost a decade of experience with RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation), including a growing emphasis on RRI in industry. Based on our experiences in the EU-funded project PRISMA, we find that the companies we engaged could be motivated to do RRI, but often only after we first shifted initial assumptions and strategies. Accordingly, we formulate six lessons we learned in the expectation that they will be relevant both for RRI in industry as well as for the future of RRI more broadly. These lessons are: (1) Strategize for stakeholder engagement; (2) Broaden current assessments; (3) Place values center stage; (4) Experiment for responsiveness; (5) Monitor RRI progress; and (6) Aim for shared value.

When it comes to innovation, companies need to think of the impact of their innovation on direct users, indirect stakeholders and even society at large. How can companies innovate responsibly? More specifically, how can companies align societal and ethical values with commercial interests as part of their innovation strategy? What does this mean for their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy? The above questions are the focus of this ‘best practice paper’. We will describe a roadmap (strategic process) that companies can follow to integrate ‘Responsible (Research and) Innovation (RRI)’ into their CSR policies and business strategy. We will also highlight key performance indicators (KPIs) for monitoring these objectives. The expected outcome of adopting RRI is that companies may gain numerous benefits, among others: • Strengthening links with consumers and end-users; • Enhancing the company’s reputation (trust); • Decreasing business risks and unintended consequences; • Strengthening public trust in the safety of products; • Adopting and environmentally profile; • Medium-term competiveness. This paper is fully based on the results of EU- Horizon 2020 project titled ‘PRISMA’ (promoting responsible innovation in industry) (see: https://www.rri-prisma.eu/). The overall goal of the PRISMA project was the development of an RRI roadmap to support industrial companies in integrating RRI into their research and innovation (R&I) strategies and activities by integrating technical, ethical, social, environmental and economic issues into R&I practices, by improving the ethical and social impacts of their outcomes. 

The rise of blockchain has resulted in discussions on (new) governance models with multiple actors collaborating. Incidents and problems occurred due to flaws in blockchain protocols, smart contracts and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Often it is unclear how decisions are made concerning evolvement of blockchain applications. In this paper, we identify and analyze potential challenges regarding governance of blockchain initiatives in various types of decentralized networks using literature and case study research. The governance challenges are classified based on a framework consisting
of different layers (infrastructure, application, company and institution/country) and stages (design, operate, evolve/crisis). The results show that in various stages and layers, different challenges occur. Furthermore, blockchain applications governance and blockchain infrastructure governance were found to be entangled adding to the challenge. Our research shows a specific need
for further research into governance models for DAO applications on permissionless blockchains, linked to the products and services offered whereas in permissioned blockchains and other type of applications, existing governance models might often be feasible. For developing new governance models, we recommend learning from the lessons from the open source community.

In this study, we investigate the impact of entrepreneurial pitches and interactions between entrepreneurs and business angels (BAs) on investment outcomes. Instead of an experimental- or survey-based research sample, we use actual pitches to observe the delivery (preparedness, and passion) and content of the pitch and interaction (information on the product/service, market, and entrepreneur). We found that while preparedness has a significant positive influence on angel investing, passion does not. Furthermore, our empirical results show that the degree to which the pitch and interaction convey favorable information about the entrepreneur is positively related to angel investment decisions. Positive content about product characteristics and market attractiveness do not have a significant effect.