Building Business Communities in the Gaeltacht Regions through Leveraging the Digital Ecosystem

The Postgraduate Research Programme in Innovation, Digitalisation, Enterprise and Society (IDEAS) offers 12 PhD research scholarships to commence in 2024. Each project will include an enterprise placement of minimum 12 weeks duration.

Project (IDEAS 12): Building Business Communities in the Gaeltacht Regions through Leveraging the Digital Ecosystem

Although the topic of the digital ecosystem has remained relatively unexplored, the concept has been mentioned frequently in discussions on digital transformation, in particular, how organisations can benefit from these ecosystems and what influences a digital ecosystem’s emergence. However, little is understood about how organisations can capitalise on the benefits of these ecosystems. Consequently, organisations struggle to develop new capabilities to digitalise their offerings and create new value propositions to compete with new players in the ecosystem effectively. Thus, as technological dependencies become more complex, there is a need for ecosystem thinking to manage integration effectively. However, SMEs often face challenges navigating the digital ecosystem. They experience challenges when trying to innovate, and their level of digitalisation remains below the industry average. Barriers also include a lack of an innovative culture, limited time, human capital, financial constraints and limited managerial resources. The focus of this research study is to explore how the integration of local enterprises in the Gaeltacht Region into the digital ecosystem influences their competitiveness, sustainability, and growth within a rapidly changing marketplace.

The principal objective of this study is to investigate how Gaeltacht regionally-based SMEs are capitalising on the opportunities provided by the digital ecosystem. Furthermore, this study will consider what the new dynamics of digital ecosystems mean for organisational strategy, innovation, value creation, and sustainability and reflect on the inhibitors of digital ecosystem emergence in the Gaeltacht’s regionally based SMEs.

Requirements/Qualifications

A minimum of 2.1 honours degree (Level 8) in a relevant discipline.

An appreciation of Indigenous languages, particularly the Irish language, is desirable. 

Project Duration:

48 months (PhD)

Preferred Location:

ATU Sligo, Sligo Campus

Applications:

Application Form / Terms of Conditions can be obtained on the website: https://www.atu.ie/TU-RISE

The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm, (GMT) Friday 26th July, 2024.

Only selected applicants will be called for an online interview (shortlisting may apply).