Innovation is about change: the introduction of novelty into an economic system. Managing any type of economic or organizational change is challenging because its effects are usually uncertain and affect participants unevenly. Managing technological change requires a heady cocktail of creativity, flexibility, and perseverance in the face of novelty and turmoil. This chapter explores the specia features of digital innovation of new businesses. Digital business innovation deals with improved technology-based business models for information and communication – core elements of all economic activity. Furthermore, we look at the long-term patterns of technological change and notice how digital technologies arise from the combination of electronics and instruments and lead to new kinds of technologies that accelerate invention activity itself.

Human minds are particularly biased when processing information in digital environments. Behavioral economics has highlighted many cognitive biases that afflict our economic decision making. We may choose people like ourselves for important jobs or we may focus on irrelevant characteristics. We may also focus on recent, available information because our brains interpret that as more relevant for the current situation, whereas, optimally, we might benefit from a deeper dive into collecting more representative or comprehensive data and analyzing it appropriately. Even the way information is presented influences whether we believe it. Designers of digital content and experiences need to be aware of and account for such biases when engaging users.

This chapter examines how social work, as a profession with the heritage of Western Enlightenment modernity, must be re-imagined if it is to respond appropriately to the twenty-first-century crises and future uncertainties facing the world. It sets the scene for social work re-imagination by exploring the characteristics of Enlightenment modernity (which flourished from the late seventeenth to the eighteenth century) and the crises at hand and by exposing the inadequacies of a business-as-usual approach to the blatant unsustainability of the existing order. We argue that the future of social work lies in its revamping and recognising that it is about working with and in the social through a systemic perspective. The social must be brought back to social work by breaking out of the heritages of Enlightenment modernity and isolated individualism.

Social work has always existed in a society with opposing values and ideologies, but in the years of liberal consensus (up to the 1990s or early 2000s) it was possible for social workers to have a legitimacy, as the values of human rights and social justice, of caring for others, received tokenistic attention from political leaders and were seen by populations as important. Much has changed in the globalised world: in the 2020s even strong social democracies, exemplified by those in Scandinavia, are experiencing both the pressures of neoliberal globalisation and the threats of right-wing populism. In this chapter, we confront political contexts and discuss social work resistance to neoliberal, patriarchal structures and alternatives for progressive change.

Competition under network effects takes on interesting dynamics for which any digital innovator will need to plan. If there is more than one competing network battling to reach critical mass, the marketplace can be even more volatile and the outcome very unpredictable. If network effects are strong and users care relatively more about the connections than about the inherent features of the product, the market may “tip” and feature “winner take all” dynamics. This chapter explores strategies that facilitate competition against other networks.

Chapter 4 explores why incorporating pairings and grouping in language classrooms has been found to support learners’ language skills. In particular, research has found that the opportunity to negotiate for meaning and participate in communicative interactions is a key result of peer interactions. Authors interpret these findings and propose a series of classroom-based activities for readers to sample in their lessons.

Epic Games, the creator of the hugely popular computer game Fortnite described itself as an “interactive entertainment company and provider of 3D engine technology.” Tim Sweeney, while a mechanical engineering student at the University of Maryland, founded the company in 1991 under the name Potomac Computer Systems out of his parents’ home. In addition to games, Epic Games also created Unreal Engine, the 3D game creation tool that powered a large array of games and 3D design by film, TV, simulation, architecture, automotive, and manufacturing companies. Furthermore, Epic Online Services facilitated content development for a variety of platforms. Epic Game Store was a distribution channel for Epic’s in-house games and those by third-party developers. This case explores the network and platform strategies of Epic Games and finishes with a discussion of the lawsuit that the company filed against mobile platform providers Apple and Google.

Once the value configuration, a distinct value proposition, and an initial plan for the revenue mechanism or the internal benefits of the innovation are clarified, it is time to scope the business potential of the innovation. This involves thinking through the resources and activities needed to implement and deliver the innovation and assessing how they should be organized and how much they would cost to offer or access. The innovator now needs to identify the resource base needed for the value configuration designed in the first stage. This chapter analyzes how the value configuration relates to the broader business ecosystem in which it is embedded.

This is a case study about the development and growth of e-books at Barnes & Noble. By 2012, both Apple and Barnes & Noble had gained footholds in the e-book marketplace. While Amazon initially controlled 90 percent of the e-book market, in 2012 Barnes & Noble had about 25 percent and Apple 11 percent of the market, pushing Amazon down to about 60 percent. However, the struggles were not over. How could Barnes & Noble create a sustainable competitive advantage, and a profitable business, against the e-commerce giant Amazon on one side and the electronics giant Apple on the other side?

Chapter 15 focuses on how language learners develop pragmatic competence in a new language and target culture(s). Through presenting a variety of real-life examples, the authors highlight the importance of teaching language learners what sorts of communication styles they might encounter outside of the classroom and what interactional approachs may be more or less appropriate given these social situations. Both receptive and productive practices for teaching pragmatics are shared at the conclusion of the chapter.

Having examined the production, consumption, and valuation of information and data, we can start to design business models for information goods. We examine the fundamental characteristics of information and data goods that we need to consider. It is critical for a digital innovator to design mechanisms that allow users to discover their valuation and preferences, and that allow the innovator to discover users’ willingness to pay. Ideally, such mechanisms account for cognitive tendencies to prefer intuitive, familiar, simple, and quick solutions to our data and information needs.

Newspapers are an archetypal information business. They have been struggling to transition to the digital marketplace. Around the year 2000, newspaper revenues consisted primarily of advertising revenue. Classified ads were a particularly lucrative market where major newspapers practically held monopolies in their primary circulation region, such as the New York City metro area for The New York Times. This case explores the journey of The New York Times to adopt digital features and compete in the digital ad market.

Communication technologies change relentlessly and “coevolve” with the social and economic systems within which they are embedded, particularly with the dynamics of the marketplace. Many high-technology industries evolve through a cyclical pattern that helps predict how the next-generation networks and services take shape and grow. This chapter describes this pattern of evolution to understand what to expect in information and communication technology markets and how to make decisions about adopting and innovating new information and communication services. It then discusses the implications of this pattern for future communication networks and products.

The models of Chapter 3, based on technology- and factor endowment differences can explain inter-industry trade but not intra-industry trade – the simultaneous import and export of similar types of goods and services – which is empirically important, especially between rich countries. Competitive pressure by foreign firms and strategic interaction may entice companies to engage in mutual trade flows of homogeneous products, leading to lower mark-ups, lower prices, larger volumes, and welfare gains for consumers. Firms can also engage in trading similar for better use of scale economies, lower prices and access to a larger number of varieties. The international business literature focuses on multinational firms, investigating why some multinationals can do better than others by creating a competitive advantage. In a setting of intra-industry trade, international business (dealing with firm-level competition) thus meets international economics (focusing on country-level trade).