The Challenges and Strategic Solutions of Emerging Technology Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

With increasing visibility of disruptive innovations such as AI, the term deep tech has become common among practitioners. However, the phenomenon of deep tech entrepreneurship still suffers from conceptual ambiguity and lacks empirical evidence. It is unclear what makes tech ‘deep’ and how it differs from emerging technology. In seeking answers to these questions, we conduct a systematic literature review on emerging technology commercialization. Drawing on the literature about risk, strategy, and the nature of deep tech we first, develop a framework, which explains the defining challenges of deep tech. We then use this framework to analyze the challenges that new technology-based firms (NTBFs) face in their attempts to commercialize emerging or deep technology. Our findings support academic efforts to define deep tech by commercialization challenges that are shared with commercializing emerging technologies. We also support technology entrepreneurs by providing a systematic overview of strategies that were found helpful to address those challenges.