Entrepreneurship in a new digital industry: The emergence and growth of mobile health

Digital technologies have changed the nature of entrepreneurship, leading to new types of opportunities, processes, and challenges, as well as to the emergence of new digital industries. In this chapter, we examine the origins, evolution, and structure of the mobile health industry since its emergence around 2005. Using data of 193 young mobile health ventures, we discuss the rapid growth and maturing of the industry, as well as the importance of interorganizational relationships and ecosystem partners. We present an interdisciplinary future research agenda focused on entrepreneurship in emerging digital industries, structured around research themes of business model evolution, ecosystem and alliances, and innovation and data security. This chapter contributes to the understanding of industry emergence, in particular the co-evolution of new ventures and a novel digital industry.

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