Are we ready for shared value economy and new technologies?

In spite of a relatively well-established literature on technology impacts on business and entrepreneurship dynamics (Saura et al. 2017, Etzioni and Etzioni, 2016; Diakopoulos, 2016, and etc.), many kinds of entrepreneurship were for the first time defined or became of significant interest to researchers only over the past 5 years. For instance, 2018/ 2019 GEM report introduced family entrepreneurship statistics as well as entrepreneurship in the context of gigs and shared value economy. In light of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, digital hubs, robots, augmented reality, and etc., and emerging shared value economy, the key strategic partnerships might help mitigate risk, reach synergy effects among stakeholders, along with  more innovative and diverse products.

The same trends should be taken into account during business development process, while bringing many different types of resources, including knowledge and creativity, on board. However, some countries, such as Brazil and Madagascar, undergo a rather opposite trend: entrepreneurs operate on their own with no co-founders or employees (53 and 30% respectively in Brazil and Madagascar). Notwithstanding the accentuated significance of strategic international collaboration, many European economies possess high rates of solo entrepreneurs (the Netherlands – 23%; Spain, the UK, Italy, Germany, and Sweden – over 15%). Similar percentage of solo entrepreneurs might be found in Asian countries, such as Thailand, while entrepreneurs from the Middle East and Africa  acknowledge the role of strategic cooperation on business, as only two countries have higher rates than 5% out of adults’ population (Lebanon and Madagascar). Such choice is related to a set of factors (cultural and social norms, work style, labor supply and recruitment peculiarities, as well as willingness to belong to a network or work via cooperation strategies). For instance, according to Accenture (2019), globally, 1,7 billion adults are “unbanked” and can’t qualify for a loan, which is partly related to the  diversity of career choice, work type/ status and new kinds of collaboration, where strategic partnerships can replace traditional employees within digital networks/ platforms.

Cultural and social norms, economic conditions and main career motives lead to diverse levels of family entrepreneurship, which according to GEM 2018/2019, is classified into 2 levels, based on the extent of involvement in family business: shared ownership combined with management or shared management combined with jobs creation. For example, in Thailand and China approximately 25% of entrepreneurs are strongly related to family business, and one fifth of Indian entrepreneurs are related to family business. Inclination to family business is prominent in each geographical region and at each development stage, which shows its link to specific cultural and social norms and behavioral patterns. For instance, in order to start business, family is the main driver for c.a. one fourth of early stage entrepreneurs in Europe and North America (nearly 30% in Bulgaria and Switzerland, and rather low indicators in Poland and the UK). High family business entrepreneurship rates, as expected, are witnessed in Latin America and Caribbean (between 30 and 40% in Colombia and Uruguay) and in the Middle East and Africa (particularly in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Israel).

Within the GEM 2018/2019 report Niels Bosma and Donna Kelley (2019) argue that notwithstanding the popularity of sharing platforms (such as AirBnb, Uber, Grubhub, Foodora or TaskRabbit) sharing economy trend is not predominant across all the regions and economies. For example, gig (online and on-site service jobs) and sharing (offering goods and services via platforms) businesses, based on digital or physical platforms, are particularly popular in higher income economies, such as South Korea (more than one in every five adults), Israel, Chile, Ireland, and the USA or in lower income countries, such as Sudan; on the contrary, sharing and gig entrepreneurs are nearly absent in Indonesia and Madagascar (GEM 2018/ 2019).

New experiences and digital realities, in parallel to analytics and cognitive management as well new technologies, such as cloud and blockchain, move the technological revolution towards the economy where people should work hand in hand with technologies; where cultural and social norms (fear of failure, social trust, uncertainty avoidance, and etc.) lead to the era of efficient risk and big data management, accompanied by cyber security and social value-added (Deloitte, 10^th Anniversary addition, 2019). Such argument is supported by the main trends revealed by Accenture Technology Vision (2019), where the combination of Distributed Ledger Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality and Quantum Computing becomes a key strategic target of modern organizations. According to Accenture researchers (2019), 87% of business and IT executives are particularly preoccupied by cyber security issues. While better understanding technology from marketing pull perspective, companies might improve the ratio of loyal customers/ clients (41% of executives focus on understanding consumer behavior regarding technology). Consumer-oriented technology strategy is also marked by 85% of executives who focus on customization and real/near time delivery, while nearly the same percentage (83%) believe that digital demographics might bring new business development opportunities.

New technologies directly influence human resource strategies; however, innovation processes from creative ideas to the market entry and commercial value require investment in both technology and intellectual capital; thus, new employees are becoming intermediaries between clientele/ consumer and technologies. GILE Experts acknowledge an intermediary role of employees, as their working style should help operate in big data era. Based on KPMG (2019), about 2 thirds of HR specialists admit that HR function is continuously evolving within the technological time of change, which indicates that the workforce will undergo a significant transformation; however, only 40% of HR professionals have a strategy in place. Moreover, c.a. 41% characterize their culture as not aligned with technological changes and even less (35%) characterize their culture as task-oriented. Digital transformation will affect 67% of HR experts in the upcoming few years. While functioning in business intelligence era, organizations should drive their transformation by analytics tools; however, only 20% of HR managers consider analytics as a key solution during the next few years and even smaller percentage (12%) would integrate this solution into management functions. Similar trends are witnessed regarding artificial intelligence: 36% of HR managers have started introducing AI, but only 14% have invested in AI, compared to 49% of HR managers investing in Human Capital Management technology and 32% in Clouds. A rather clear opposition to innovative technology cannot last forever: within 2 upcoming years HR executives will invest in predictive analytics (60%), enhanced process automation (53%), and AI (47%) (KPMG, 2019).

The over-viewed global studies came to agreement that modern technologies are inevitable: sooner or later managers and employees will need “to make friendship” with robots or new sophisticated embedded solutions; digital networks and big data management tools will realign owners’, managers’ and employees’ perception and attitude. Therefore, GILE Experts emphasize the role of lifelong learning and adaptability in the context of technological competences and culture, which should always come first. Investment into innovative technologies might be vanished without innovative management and creative leadership along with preparation of organizational culture for edgy digital processes. Educators/ mentors should be well trained and then a clear knowledge transfer guideline should be implemented. Modern organizations should engage society, gather community, integrate customers/ clients and employees in a decision-making process, which will help choose the best user friendly technology and increase creativity and efficiency in the longer run. Working together with robots can be fun and inspiring, when culture comes first….

Bibliography

Accenture (2019). The post-digital era is upon us: are you ready for what’s next: Accenture Technology Vision 2019. Available online: https://www.accenture.com/t20190304T094157Z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-94/Accenture-TechVision-2019-Tech-Trends-Report.pdf

Diakopoulos, N. (2016). Accountability in algorithmic decision making. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 56–62.

Etzioni, A.; Etzioni, O. (2016). Designing AI systems that obey our laws and values. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 59, No. 9, pp. 29–31.

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor by Bosma, N.; Kelley, D. (2019). 2018/2019 Report. Available online: https://www.gemconsortium.org/

KPMG (2019). The Future of HR 2019: in the Know or in the No. Available online: https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/insights/2018/11/the-future-of-human-resources.html

Saura, J. R.; Palos-Sánchez, P.; Cerdá Suárez, L. M. (2017). Understanding the Digital Marketing Environment with KPIs and Web Analytics. Future Internet, Vol. 9, No. 76; pp. 1-13, doi:10.3390/fi9040076