Open prosperity: How latent realities arising from virtual-social-physical convergence (VSP) increase opportunities for global prosperity

•VSP adds the read-write functionality of Web 2.0 to virtual-physical convergence.•VSP brings about three levels of latent realities.•VSP latent realities open up new opportunities for global prosperity.•VSP latent realities are less geographically concentrated than old clusters and ecosystems.•VSP latent realities can take innovation beyond technology-push and market-pull.

Virtual technologies, social technologies, and physical technologies are often considered separately. By contrast, there has been little consideration of virtual-social-physical convergence (VSP) in the literature. Moreover, there has been little, if any, consideration of latent realities brought about by VSP. Latent realities are realities that exist, but are neither directly observable nor easily described by a single measure. In this paper, it is explained how VSP latent realities open up opportunities for global prosperity. Four contributions to the literature are made. Firstly, virtual-social-physical convergence (VSP) is explained in terms of convergence theories. Second, VSP latent realities are described in relation to relevant theories such as ecosystem edge effects. Third, VSP latent realities are related to international prosperity goals in terms of Resource-based Theory, Knowledge-based View, and Transaction Cost Economics. Fourth, it is argued that latent realities arising from VSP can be more important for increasing prosperity than physical realities arising from previous waves of technological convergence. VSP latent realities are related to practice in terms of macroeconomics and microeconomics. In addition, methodologies and foci for future research are discussed.