Background

Focal to new ventures is the exploitation/exploration of international business opportunities e.g., why a new venture makes a new international market entry. Entrepreneurial opportunity discovery, then, has been defined as the most central function of entrepreneurship (Eckhardt & Shane, 2003; Sarasvathy, 2001; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000). This work led Styles and Seymour (2006) to define international entrepreneurship as “the behavioral processes associated with the creation and exchange of value through the identification and exploitation of opportunities that cross national borders” (Styles and Seymour, 2006, p. 134). Entrepreneurial opportunity has been defined as “future situation which is deemed desirable and feasible” (Jack & Anderson, 2002) or a situation in which new goods, services, raw materials and organizing methods are combined in a way that allows for selling by greater price than the production costs (Shane & Venkataraman, 2000).These are very different definitions. In their struggle to define business opportunityin a way that allows for meaningful research on entrepreneurial behaviors entrepreneurship researchers have ended up with classifications of types of opportunities (Alvarez & Barney, 2007). There is seen to be opportunities to be recognized, opportunities to be discovered and opportunities to be created which, then, are related to more or less rational behavior with varying degrees of predictability of the results. In the end it is question of if the opportunity exists without human awareness of it or if the opportunity is created through human imagination and social interaction (Alvarez & Barney, 2007). On the other hand,  opportunities can be seen either as things to be recognized or as events and processes to be created (cf. Sarasvathy 2001). Opportunities can be seen to exist independent of individual’s perception and to be of objective, observable nature or to be created because of an individual’s actions and, thus, be of subjective nature (Alvarez & Barney, 2007; cf. found vs. made opportunities in Ardichvili et al., 2003). Both objective and subjective opportunities are result of competitive imperfections, but the imperfections are seen in the first case exogenously born and in the latter case result of individual’s action or enactment. Objective opportunities are searched for, recognized, and exploited by alert entrepreneurs who can collect enough information to anticipate the possible outcomes of their actions and calculate and carry the risks related to the situation. Subjective opportunities result of acting by entrepreneurs to enact opportunities as social constructions in a genuinely uncertain decision-making situation where information to define possible outcomes does not exist. Additionally, Cumming et al. (2009, p. 289) concludes “that greater attention to the entrepreneur in international entrepreneurship research would enhance not only our understanding of the origins of international efforts and the consequences for individual entrepreneurs, but it would also aid in understanding firm-level processes and outcomes”.

Entrepreneurial Learning and the need for knowledge

The focus of entrepreneurial learning (EL) research are issues on what entrepreneurs should or do learn during the process of exploring and exploiting an entrepreneurial opportunity in the creation of new ventures or management of existing firms, but more importantly, the specific processes of learning which that take place (Cope 2005) in the venture creation, and also in the International New Venture creation, process. Minniti and Bygrave (2001, p. 7) assert, ‘entrepreneurship is a process oflearning, and a theory of entrepreneurship requires a theory of learning’. Hence, EL is broadly positioned at the interface of entrepreneurship and organizational learning, existing studies have drawn from a wide range of theoretical insights, including experiential learning (e.g. Clarysse and Moray 2004; Cope 2003; Minniti and Bygrave 2001), organizational learning (Wang 2008), social cognitive theory (i.e. Erikson 2003), population ecology (i.e. Dencker et al. 2009) and configuration theory (i.e. Hughes et al. 2007), employing different methods to study different entrepreneurial contexts. This entrepreneurial context could be what Dutta and Crossan (2005, p. 426) defines as entrepreneurial opportunities ‘being a set of environmental conditions that lead to the introduction of one or more new products or services in the marketplace by an entrepreneur or by an entrepreneurial team through either an existing venture or a newly created one’. Hence, Prior knowledge and past experience are seen as important in identifying and pursuing opportunity (Shane and Venkataraman 2000; Baron 2006; Shane 2000). The individual cognitive structures defining the identification of opportunities are developed through the previous work experiences of individuals. Venkataraman (1997) referred to this as a “knowledge corridor” that allows the individual to recognize certain opportunities, but not others. Sarasvathy, (2001) also noted that different individuals discovered different opportunities, according to their particular way of gathering and processing information. This gathering and processing capacity is largely influenced by prior knowledge, primarily knowledge of markets, knowledge of ways to serve the markets, and knowledge of customer problems, as important artefacts for entrepreneurial discovery (Shane and Venkataraman 2000). In addition, current jobs, work experience, and technological knowledge (Park 2005) are general sources facilitating opportunity recognition. In an international setting, “the knowledge of opportunities or problems is assumed to initiate decisions” for foreign market entry (Johanson andVahlne 1977, 27).

Findings

In the paper we develop an International “digi-preneurship model” i.e., how entrepreneurs design their ventures, together with mentors in the incubators. This design process can be seen as an entrepreneurial learning process which includes venture internationalization, acceleration, and digitalization. The paper develops a guidance framework or waypoints the entrepreneurs can use to monitor their own business development from the first ideation to the first international sales. This has developed on the basis of a Interreg South Baltic Whitepaper on “digi-preneurship”.

The practice of using video conferencing systems for health care provider-patient meetings is becoming increasingly more important. Here, we reviewed literature on the subject, with the aim to provide a set of factors and perspective on what has been noted as important for the success/failure of the use of video in consultation meetings. Mostly, previous studies have focused on the outcomes, how well video works for the patient-care professional meeting, when it comes to affecting expected outcomes of the consultation. However, we focus on the contextual factors that have been noted in research on the topic and aim to gather these from a wide range of studies on video used in a home environment. We discuss the results of the study in the broader context of the implementation situation of video consultations systems, providing factors, barriers, and perspectives as well as a general context to use or non-use of the systems. Hence, we provide knowledge that can be taken into account by the designers and developers of such systems.

The road towards a digital organization is partly technical but also about the skills and mindset of the personnel of thecompany. As the technological base for digitalization is fairly straightforward, the ways of supporting change in people are notevolving as rapidly. This paper suggests an approach to continue learning in an organization, based on concepts aroundpedagogical theory, learning patterns. This theoretical framework is transferred into a business setting, and the consequencesare discussed from the digitalization perspective.

IT solutions for rehab are seen as an opportunity to provide effective support for patients’ recovery process in their in-home environment, based on instructions from health care professionals. However, what factors in the context affect the usefulness of such systems lie beyond the training process as such. In this research, we followed a co-design process, where the design of a support packaged for home rehab is based on standard products. Through group interviews with teams of home rehab staff, a broader view of the subject was sought. Group discussions involving the initial demonstration and testing of technology provided a wide spectrum of factors that the staff considered important for success, related to issues on both the organizational and the patient levels. These findings were analyzed for success factors in an attempt to reach an understanding of the rehab process context which will have an effect on the usefulness of the support system. As a result, a checklist of aspects on the process that need to be taken into account in the design of a rehab support system is presented and discussed. The results could be used both in the design of solutions and in the selection and implementation of support systems regarding how to improve the actual use of the systems.

ICT projects, development and/or research driven, are sources of new innovative eHealth solutions. However, the rate of continued use is low and gaining sustainable benefits in daily operations is difficult (Warth et al.). This research looks at the barriers for the organizational implementation based on research driven projects. 

Three eHealth projects have been analyzed for aspects on the phenomenon, to gain a deeper understanding of the problem. Results are based on discussions between project participants, (professionals, decision makers, patients), and analysis of the project set ups and purposes. 

ResultsFactors that could be seen as important for lack of continued use includes: pure research setup of projects, lack of financial resources in the post projects time , lack of organizational competences for adoption of solutions, no organizational champion or CEO support, lack of fit to organizational processes or scheduling, professional resistance to change, among others. 

DiscussionProject set ups and working methods of the project might hamper the possibilities of effective knowledge transfer and organizational adoption. Experiences from mentioned projects show that a 360-degree co-design approach, which includes major stakeholder (for example, professionals, patients, researchers, patients, decisions makers) should be included. There is a need to prepare for knowledge transfer processes in post project phases, including competence development strategies for professionals and organizational change plans. 

Conclusions A holistic understanding of conditions and challenges is needed for paving the way for health organization to reap benefits from research projects. 

Lessons learned Projects need to include processes for engaging the stakeholders through 360 co-design, knowledge transfer plans and competence development strategies. 

Limitations The research is exploratory and based on analysis of past and ongoing eHealth projects. 

Suggestions for future researchBetter understanding for how to integrating competence development and organizational change as a part of eHealth project are needed. An investigation on digital competence among patients and healthcare personnel is planned, with the purpose of defining competence development strategies and requirements for IT-enabled cooperation and co-production.

Ehealth solutions are in great need in the community of elderly in general, as patients or home carers, however a design approach that delivers this is illusive. In this research we present the experiences from a set of design processes targeting elderly’s needs of support or home care, based on a co-design approach. The purpose is to present guiding principles for how to work with elderly in a co-design process, to be used as basis for future set up of co-design processes.

The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in today’s medicine (Islam et al, 2015). In 2020, 40% of IoT-related technologies will be assigned to the health domain, which makes up around a 117 $ billion in the global market (Bauer, Patel & Veira, 2016). Adding to this the demographic changes will further set a significant challenge in Europe (Steinführer & Haase, 2007). Innovative techniques for supporting health systems and independent life for the aging population is therefore essential, not at least in relation to fall prevention and technology for promoting a good life throughout the lifespan. Further, participation from patients is a goal for healthcare worldwide (Lundgren, Sunesson & Tunved, 2014). For example according to the Health and Medical care act in Sweden (1982:763) it is described that the goal for health care “is good health and care on equal terms for the entire population”. In line with this challenge of integrated care the patient itself will be the most important resource for promotion of health, why Co Design is needed as a method for innovation in healthcare sector. It is important for the users ‘experiences and insights to contribution in improvements but not at least because it has been shown that increased involvement with the user in care reduces the number of hospital visits (Simpsons, 2007).

Long term success of eHealth initiatives rests on the cooperation between major parties in society. This paper reports on an ongoing project with the aim of providing support for elderly living longer at home. The general template of Quadruple Helix cooperation aids the formation and execution of projects with broad impact ambitions and could guide the design of solutions for an aging population. A general model for cooperation, based on the different challenges encountered in an ongoing research and development project, is presented and discussed, with regard to a process of the Quadruple Helix type. Key components of the processes include a lifecycle-based process view of the solutions and the technical base, comprising the continuous development of solutions, business models and technical platforms. At the centre of the approach reside user interaction aspects and the desired outcomes of changed behaviours. These rest on the abilities of a technical platform to afford the personalization of solutions fitting the varying needs of elderly living longer at home. As a result, a lifecycle-based and end-user driven co-design process is presented as an example of a Quadruple Helix project organization. The project shows a way of operationalizing Quadruple Helix in software development through the use of co-design concepts.