Examining the opportunities and challenges of the Internet of Things

The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks. Internet of things has been considered a misnomer because devices do not need to be connected to the public internet, they only need to be connected to a network and be individually addressable.There is much market hype about the potential of IoT to transform firms and industries. Taking perspective of actors in the quadruple helix—industry, government, universities and end users—we consider the enabling opportunities and challenges that IoT brings. Enabling opportunities for firms include firm purpose reconfiguration, competitive disruption and market dominance, value reconfiguration, value creation and business models environmental and customer insights and ecosystem integration. Regulation, infrastructural investment and capacity, societal awareness and adoption, entrepreneurial ecosystem development are challenges that IoT brings to quadruple helix actors. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of IoT for these actors.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial ecosystems , Quadruple helix , Challenges , Opportunities , Internet of Things.