This cumulative dissertation focuses on PropTech (Property Technology – technological ventures targeting Real Estate) and the dynamics in the Real Estate industry as a result of the continuous founding of PropTech Startups, which responds to the need for digitalization of processes in Real Estate. We first conducted a study to shed light on the challenges and barriers that PropTech startups face when trying to find their product-market fit in the industry. We then designed and conducted a study to identify the barriers and obstacles that incumbents in Real Estate would encounter when working, cooperating, and interacting with PropTech startups. Finally, we completed our research with a third study to understand the impact of dedicated institutional investors on the success of PropTech startups. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the literature on Diffusion of Innovation, Technology Acceptance, and strategy uniqueness of dedicated institutional investors. Moreover, the dissertation provides perspectives and tools to reflect and assess the essence of the strategy of PropTech startups, investors, and incumbents.

The growing importance of sustainability in organizational success, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, underscores the need for leveraging technologies such as blockchain methods to enhance sustainability indicators across environmental, social, and economic pillars. This study aims to identify and understand the challenges hindering the adoption of blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical sector for improving sustainability performance, addressing two research topics: the specific challenges faced by blockchain adoption in this context and the interdependencies among these challenges. Employing a two-step approach, the study compiles challenges through a literature review, refines them via expert opinions, and establishes their interrelationships using methodologies like fuzzy interpretive structural modeling (FISM) and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC). The research contributes to unraveling the complex relationships and dependencies within the system, providing a structured framework for improved decision making and strategic planning. It fills a literature gap as the first attempt to outline driving and dependent factors related to the challenges of adopting blockchain technology for sustainability enhancement in the pharmaceutical sector, offering insights that can significantly impact brand image, company perception, and consumer value.

Heuristics are mental shortcuts applied, consciously, subconsciously or both, to save time and efforts at the expense of risking the accuracy of the outcome. Therefore, one might argue that it is just an accuracy-effort trade-off. Nonetheless, we ought to recognize the distinction between the circumstances of risk, where all choices, outcomes, and probabilities might be generally known, and the circumstances of uncertainty, where, at least some, are not. Traditional models like the Subjective Expected Utility (SEU) work best for decisions under risk but not under uncertainty, which portrays most situations people need to tackle. Uncertainty requires simple heuristics that are sufficient instead of perfect. In this dissertation, the notion of heuristics was researched through a comprehensive historical review that unfolded the heuristics-linked ideas of significant scholars. An explicit distinction between the deliberate and the automatic heuristics was stated with chronological categories of pre and post-introduction of the SEU theory; providing a new perspective and opening a discussion for future research to consider. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative studies were applied that produced an unsophisticated heuristic set that was used by entrepreneurs in the Middle East and Germany. Perhaps entrepreneurs, and people in general, do not always know or acknowledge their use of heuristics. But still, they use it extensively and may exchange heuristics among others. That may lead us to think that in a world where uncertainty prevails, the Homo heuristicus might become a real threat to the Homo economicus.

While extant research on entrepreneurial ecosystems has focused on macro-level factors influencing the ecosystem's development, the role and impact of entrepreneurial practices have been neglected. The objective of this study is to address this research gap and to shed light on the micro-level practices of entrepreneurs who support sustainability transitions in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Our inductive study looks at these micro-level practices from the perspective of sustainable ventures situated in the sharing economy. We conducted 31 in-depth interviews with the founders and senior managers of sustainable ventures to investigate how they advocate the sustainability cause in their ecosystem. Our findings show that sustainable entrepreneurs rely on three distinct sets of micro-level practices: building a supportive environment, disrupting normative standards, and reframing the sustainability paradigm. Also, sustainable entrepreneurs engage in political work to strengthen their position and credibility in the sharing economy, which is being increasingly dominated by profit-oriented players and business practices. By substantiating the central role and micro-level practices that sustainable entrepreneurs enact to advocate sustainability, our study contributes to theorizing the sharing economy. Furthermore, our resultant framework provides a detailed overview of the distinct micro-level practices that help ventures to support the sustainability transition in entrepreneurial ecosystems.