Call for papers

 Overview

Disruptive innovations generated by digital technologies allow firms to reinforce their competitive advantages by differentiating themselves from their competitors; more specifically, they create organizational capital based on industrial and financial partnerships (Braune et al., 2021). Digital business transformation is a journey to adopt and deploy digital technologies and business models in order to improve performance quantifiably. Thus, digital transformations change business models, value creation and can positively influence a company’s reputation (Anderson, 2014). However, the expectations generated by these technological opportunities are likely to generate ever-increasing expenses that exceed their actual benefits. As Solow (1987) pointed out during the computer revolution, "we'd better watch out" and the question of measuring the gains linked to digital transformations is therefore raised.

Digitalization enables the emergence of new entrepreneurs who, unlike their predecessors, can use digital technologies and online communities and are able to manage the key processes needed to create/launch a new venture moving from idea generation and opportunity recognition, to intellectual property protection, production, marketing and distribution. Technologies such as artificial intelligence, social media, open source software and hardware, crowdsourcing, e-trust and online reputation assessment, e-signing, virtual reality, augmented reality, zooming, IoT, 3D printing, digital imaging and big data are empowering would-be entrepreneurs, while radically altering the competitive landscape, and contributing to reduce significantly the barriers between invention and the creation of a new company (Sahut, Dana and Laroche, 2020).

       Despite these new trends, innovations and new venture creation are still largely analyzed by using theories and concepts which were developed before the digital revolution. Thus, there is a prospective struggle to provide a full account and understanding of these new trends (Sahut, Schweizer and Peris Ortiz, 2022). On the other hand, supporters and optimist thinkers who announce the emergence of an industrial revolution and a new era of creativity and prosperity often fail to provide a neutral point of view and data to prove that such a big shift is really taking place.

Entrepreneurship research in the digital economy also needs to be expanded to include literature from other disciplines such as political science, information systems and industrial organization. Referencing political science literature provides the knowledge necessary to understand the nuances of digital governance and digital citizenship and their importance in the digital entrepreneurial ecosystems. Research from management information systems literature illuminates the background necessary to understand how a system of digital technologies and infrastructure can serve as the germinating bed for digital entrepreneurs (Nambisan, 2017). Literature in economics and industrial organization can help to understand how digital Entrepreneurship unfolds in digital platforms and multisided markets.

       We invite contributions that will help to better assess, analyze, and theorize how digital innovations emerge and create value, how these innovations affect the structuring of markets and business models, how to implement and finance them.

Non-exhaustive list of topics

- Impacts of digital technologies (artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual reality, IoT…) on people

- Impacts of digital technologies (artificial intelligence, blockchain, virtual reality, IoT…) on processes

- Impact of Covid-19 on the digital innovation

- Management of digital innovation or IT systems

- Digital transformation, strategy and competitiveness of firms

- Digital transformation for family firms

- Digital innovation for disrupted supply chains

- Business models and innovation

- Digital innovation, open innovation and knowledge management

- Digital platforms and multisided markets

- Entrepreneurship / intrapreneurship and innovation

- Dynamics, growth strategy, and governance of digital firms

- Digital marketing

- Human resources, CSR and digital

- E-Government government & digital public services

- E-learning, e-education and e-pedagogy

- Risk management and innovation

- Governance and risk management in high-tech firms

- Financing of digital innovations, start-ups, SMEs and high-tech firms

- Incubators, Business Angels, Venture Capital and Private Equity

- Electronic markets and trading platforms

- FinTech and Alternative Finance (crowdfunding and P2P lending)

- Blockchain and Smart contracts

- Digital finance, money, banking, and insurance: Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, ICO, token offerings, future of payments, e-banking, e-finance, AssurTech...

- Digital, innovation & tourism

- Digital innovation and accounting

- Digital innovation and CSR

- Digital innovation in emerging markets

References

Anderson, C. (2014). Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, Crown Business.

Braune, E., Lantz JS., Sahut, JM., & Teulon, F. (2019). Corporate venture capital in the IT sector and relationships in VC syndication networks. Small Business Economics, 56, 1221-1233.

Nambisan, S. (2017). Digital Entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology Perspective of Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6), 1029-1055.

Sahut, JM., Dana, LP., & Laroche, M. (2020). Digital innovations, impacts on marketing, value chain and business models: An introduction. Canadian Journal of Administrative Science; 37(1), 61-67,

Sahut J.-M., Schweizer D. et Peris Ortiz, M. (2022), Technological Innovations to Ensure Confidence in the Digital World, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 179, 121680.

Solow, R.M. (1987). We’d better watch out. New York Times Book Review, July 12, p. 36.