DRIVING BUSINESS GROWTH IN THE INFORMATION ECONOMY: NEW PERSPECTIVES FROM TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AND ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES

Abstract

This thesis includes three studies that investigate the business growth in today?s information economy in two ways: expansion of existing firms and creation of new ventures. This research makes substantial contributions to extant IS research, which predominately examines the business value of IT consumption in established firms. The first study examines how the pronounced servitization transformation in the software industry affects existing firms? performances. The next two studies explore different channels through which information technology (IT) drives entrepreneurship. The second study focuses on the labor-based IT intensity of non-IT incumbent firms and examines how this affects firm-level entrepreneurial spawning (i.e., employees leaving to start new ventures). The third study investigates effective initial job placements to prepare fresh IT graduates for entrepreneurship.