House of Innovation

The emerging digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin has made waves in mainstream media across the globe, as have the numerous extreme events that have rocked it. One such event, the bankruptcy of a prominent Bitcoin exchange called Mt.Gox, particularly shocked the emerging sociotechnical field. However, it is not clear how the numerous entrepreneurial firms operating in this field survived this shock.
Studies of resilience in the face of extreme events have typically examined mature firms, characterised by formal structures and some slack resources. In such studies, the resilience, adaptability and trans-formability of the firm come into view. A new firm in an emergent field, however, is equally driven to survive – but must do so with far more limited resources, without a formal structure and little in the way of organisational learning. In our study, we find that such entrepreneurial firms rely on their collective identity in forming resilient responses. Furthermore, one outcome of this shock was a call for regula-tions and oversight – despite earlier dogmatic rejections of such formal control.
Keywords: Bitcoin, Entrepreneurship, Resilience, Extreme Event, Qualitative Study

The Sharing Economy has been the subject of considerable interest among policy makers across the globe. This book begins by developing a pragmatic definition of the Sharing Economy. Next, we describe global Sharing Economy trends, followed by an examination of the Sharing Economy in Sweden. Subsequent sections address regulatory considerations and potential economic implications. The book then concludes with a discussion of possible policy responses.

FinTech, a contraction of Financial Technology, has become an increasingly “hot” sector among policy makers and investors across the globe. This growing sector has attracted investments at an estimated USD 12.2 billion globally in 2014 as well as interest in a number of regional hubs: Silicon Valley, New York, London, Stockholm, and Australia. Stockholm, similar to many other regional financial hubs, has seen considerable investment and activity in this sector. For example, in 2014 alone 15 FinTech deals attracted USD 266 million in investments, accounting for a remarkable 18 percent of the total USD 1.5 billion FinTech investments across Europe, as well as 32 percent of Sweden’s total USD 826 million in investments in private companies. Furthermore, looking historically across the EU, Stockholm comprises 18.3 percent of the past five year and 15.9 percent of the past 11 year (as far back as there are accessible statistics) total EU FinTech investments, putting Stockholm as the second highest funded city in the EU in the past 10 years, second only to London and solidly ahead of the third place city Amsterdam. This report looks into this activity and paints a picture of the FinTech investments and activities in the Stockholm region during the past five years and discusses some of the drivers and limitations in this burgeoning sector.