With my colleagues at Unity Lab, I have recently started a research project on grassroots digital innovations, i.e. digital innovations developed by local communities, groups of citizens, cooperatives or entrepreneurs. Examples include e-commerce portals run by groups of entrepreneurs, car-sharing services developed by local citizens, or platform cooperatives for riders or touristic accommodations.
Our study aims to understand what factors facilitate and constrain the development of these initiatives, focusing on
- the actors involved in the start-up and growth of these initiatives;
- the resources needed in the start-up and growth of these initiatives;
- the support currently available to grassroots digital innovation;
- additional support that would help the development of these initiatives.
To collect data, we have been interviewing founders, contributors and experts of grassroots digital innovation across Europe. Our ambition is to expand our analysis to as many cases as possible from multiple European countries, to ensure that we take into account different experiences, including those less well-known and less visible.
If you have any direct experience of grassroots digital innovation (as a founder, member or contributor) or if you have expertise in this area (because you have researched these initiatives, partnered with them, etc.), we would kindly invite you to participate to a 1-hour interview, to be conducted via Teams or any other alternative of preference.
If you are available, please book your favourite timeslot here. For more information, you can contact me at p.gerli[at]napier.ac.uk.
Many thanks in advance to all those that will agree to contribute to our study. We look forward to hearing your insights on this fascinating topic!
Dr Paolo Gerli 