The RIT Digital Entrepreneurship Group, which was founded with a grant from the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) focuses on helping companies start digital businesses, and on the related task of conducting research on the phenomenon of digital entrepreneurship.
One of the primary means by which it helps digital entrepreneurs is through the RIT Digital Entrepreneurship Community maintained by Dr. Victor Perotti.
Another means is by funding a Digital Entrepreneurship category in Professor Hull's High-Tech Entrepreneurship Contest. This award was won in May, 2007 by Hometown Artists, an online music production, marketing, and distribution company for independent artists, which was started by students in Professor Hull's Managing Innovation and Technology class.
Along with Dr. Yu-Ting Caisy Hung, an associate of the RIT Digital Entrepreneurship Group, we have published one paper so far, in the International Journal of Networking and Virtual Organisations:
Taking Advantage of Digital Opportunities: A Typology of Digital Entrepreneurship
by Hull, Hair, Hung, Perotti, and DeMartino.
Abstract
As more companies start doing digital business, the question of how starting a digital venture differs from starting a traditional venture grows more important. We present a framework of digital entrepreneurship that includes a typology of new digital ventures - mild, moderate, and extreme - the characteristics of each type of new digital venture and a discussion of how those characteristics shape the success factors of each type of venture. Specific issues addressed include digital or virtual products and services, digital or virtual workplaces, and the effects of relying on computer-mediated communication.
Assorted other research papers are in progress or in review.
The members of the Digital Entrepreneurship Group include:
Dr. Vic Perotti has a digital entrepreneurship blog.