Durst Susanne – författare

The primary idea behind this book is to provide a platform for the sharing of contributions from the doctoral students of the Entrepreneurship and International Business group at the Department of Business Administration of Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). The talented group, consisting of students from countries such as Egypt, Estonia, Germany, Ghana, Italy, Kazakhstan and Russia, are studying across various topics relating to Digital Transformation for Entrepreneurship and its related subjects. This thus creates a ripe opportunity for the sharing of perspectives from different theoretical and methodological applications.The book's chapters study decision-makers of small entrepreneurial firms, both start-ups and mature, as the primary target group, digging deep into their insights on recent and fresh research findings produced by the doctoral students as part of their studies.Therefore, the book fulfills two main objectives: 1) entrepreneurial firms will get concrete ideas and recommendations as to how to address and/or improve their entrepreneurial activities/approaches to entrepreneurship triggered by digital transformation, and 2) the doctoral students will get a unique opportunity to expand their scientific writing skills while at the same time having an opportunity to present their findings in a way that is considered relevant and impactful by practitioners.The scientific quality of each chapter has been ensured by the participation of two experienced scholars and supervisors — one of whom is the head of the Entrepreneurship and International Business group, and an active researcher on the book's topic — who have closely monitored the development process of the book.

The book studies the interplay between open innovation and knowledge management issues in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). With the proliferation of the open innovation paradigm and against the backdrop of increasing external knowledge transfer activities, knowledge management is more important than ever for innovation and firm performance of any type of organization. In fact, knowledge management is no longer a pure intra-organizational activity but constitutes a vital interface function between the organization and its external partners/stakeholders.Throughout the book, readers will obtain both a broad overview of the two main concepts namely open innovation and knowledge management and its interplay. In addition, research will be presented which will help the readers to develop and/or expand their understanding of the phenomenon. This broad approach can also support in broadening the mindset regarding the topic under investigation and its application. Thereby, this book will primarily focus on SMEs and their approach with respect to the interplay in question.In order to achieve the above-mentioned aim, the book consists of ten chapters that are assigned to three parts. Part 1 introduces to the main concepts, namely, SMEs, Open Innovation, Knowledge Management, and the interplay between open innovation and knowledge management in SMEs. This is followed by Part 2, which provides empirical research insights into the phenomenon of interest. The book concludes with Part 3 which addresses promising future avenues regarding the study of open innovation and knowledge management in SMEs. All the chapters are written by leading international researchers in the respective fields, which makes the book a unique piece of work.