PhD Thesis Defense Presentation: Dongwook Chun
Dongwook Chun, a doctoral student at 海角社区 in the Information Systems area will be presenting his thesis defense entitled:
Digital Disruptive Technologies and Entrepreneurial Innovation
Friday, April 10, 2026, at 11:00 a.m.
(The defense will be conducted in hybrid mode)
Student Committee Co-chairs: Prof. Taha Havakhor and Prof. Animesh Animesh鈥嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌嬧赌�
Abstract
This dissertation examines how emerging digital technologies, specifically blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), reshape funding models, organization structure, and entrepreneurial innovation strategy. Through two essays, I investigate how startups adapt to and leverage these disruptive shifts.
The first essay focuses on blockchain-based financing (i.e., token offering or token sale), analyzing token offerings as an alternative to traditional venture capital (VC). It finds that token-backed startups exhibit lower levels of product innovative activity compared to their VC-backed counterparts. This decline is attributed to misaligned incentive structures between token and equity financing, as well as differences in investor profiles (e.g., customers vs. professional investors). The study also finds conditions, such as founder experience and token retention design, that may weaken the negative effect of token offerings on product innovation.
The second essay explores the organizational scale implications of AI-driven entrepreneurship, particularly how building AI product affects startup team size in GenAI era. After GenAI, launching AI product is associated with smaller teams, driven primarily by increased solo entrepreneurship. This result indicates that GenAI enables solo entrepreneurs to enter AI product markets easily. The essay further examines changes in boundary conditions in this shift, product structures shift, and implications for bottom-line effects in terms of product novelty and quality.
Taken together, this dissertation shows that disruptive digital technologies play a critical role in broadening access to capital and lowering the organizational scale required for innovation, yet they also reshape incentive alignment, leading to different innovation strategies and performance dynamics. By bridging financing and organizational perspectives, it deepens our understanding of how digital technologies transform entrepreneurial innovation.
