Digital Capabilities in Innovation and Strategy amid Technological Development and Economic Uncertainty
A special issue of Administrative Sciences (ISSN 2076-3387).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 2248
Special Issue Editor
Interests: innovations; dynamic capabilities; business model innovations; collaborative synergies; real options
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This SI aims to explore the role of digital dynamic capabilities as a driver of business model innovations and in enhancing the digital transformation of companies (Gebauer et al., 2021; Kohtamäki et al., 2019; Kohtamäki et al., 2020; Rabetino et al., 2017) that demonstrate sustainability in the era of digitalization and technological development.
The role of dynamic capabilities (Teece, 2007) in strategizing in complex settings is difficult to overestimate in terms of companies' abilities to build, integrate, and reconfigure internal and external core competencies (Teece et al., 1997). Moreover, open innovations (Chesbrough and Bogers, 2014; West and Bogers, 2014) are a fundamental mechanism for companies to achieve competitive advantages. Inbound open innovation requires procedures for obtaining and absorbing knowledge outside the firm (Ferraris et al., 2020).
This Special Issue is relevant, as the emerging literature on open innovation provides incomplete insight into the micro-foundations (Foss and Saebi, 2017) of digital dynamic capabilities (Warner and Wäger, 2019). What is more, the digital servitization of corporations constitutes a major change that rearranges their activity systems and profoundly changes their value-creation process (Čirjevskis, 2022). “The literature tells us little about what this change entails and the key value drivers that the most advanced customer-centric service providers focus on and how they adopt outcome business models” (Visnjic et al., 2017, p.169).
Therefore, this Special Issue aims to provide an overarching view of the digital servitization process of corporations and unpack the micro-foundations of the digital transformation of their business models (Zott and Amit, 2010) for better outcomes (Čirjevskis, 2019). Thus, the cutting-edge papers of this Special Issue can bridge the research on digital SSR (sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring) dynamic capabilities frameworks, open innovation, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain technologies and provide decision-making tools for practice, as well as illuminating directions for future inquiry.
The following research questions are to be answered for this Special Issue:
How do digital dynamic capabilities and open innovation practices drive profound changes in companies' business models in the value-creation process in the context of technological development and economic uncertainty?
How does the renewal process of business models influence their digital transformation?
How are the dimensions of digital dynamic capabilities interrelated in the context of technological development and economic uncertainty?
How does this interplay relate to digital transformation within open innovation practices in the context of technological development and economic uncertainty?
Overall, these themes and research questions encourage businesses to adopt a more dynamic, collaborative, and forward-thinking approach to strategy, ensuring that they can thrive in an increasingly digital and uncertain world.
This Special Issue invites you to submit fresh theoretical perspectives and empirical insights into corporate-level dynamics and decision-making, particularly answering how contemporary digital transformation trends influence the antecedents, processes, and consequences of corporate strategic decision-making.
We suggest that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this proposal to the Assistant Editor Ms. Zoya Zhang (zoya.zhang@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue.
Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 October 2025
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 30 November 2025
Cited References
Chesbrough, H. W., and Bogers, M. 2014. Explicating open innovation: Clarifying an emerging paradigm for understanding innovation. In New Frontiers in Open Innovation (pp. 3-28). Oxford University Press.
Čirjevskis, A. 2019. The Role of Dynamic Capabilities as Drivers of Business Model Innovation in Mergers and Acquisitions of Technology-Advanced Firms. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 5(1), 12.
Čirjevskis, A. 2022. Exploring Coupled Open Innovation for Digital Servitization in Grocery Retail: From Digital Dynamic Capabilities Perspective. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15, 411.
Ferraris, A, Marcel L. Bogers A. M., and Bresciani, S. 2020. Subsidiary innovation performance: Balancing external knowledge sources and internal embeddedness. Journal of International Management 26: 10079
Foss, N. J. and Saebi, T. 2017. Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: How far have we come, and where should we go? Journal of Management, 43(1), 200-227.
Gebauer, H., Paiola, M., Saccani, N., and Rapaccini, M. 2021. Digital servitization: Crossing the perspectives of digitization and servitization. Industrial Marketing Management, 93, 382–88.
Hayes, A. 2022. Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach, 3rd ed., Guilford Press, New York.
Kohtamäki, M., Parida, V., Oghazi, P., Gebauer, H. and Baines, T. 2019. Digital servitization business models in ecosystems: A theory of the firm. Journal of Business Research, 104, 380-392.
Kohtamäki, M., Parida, V., Patel, P. C., and Gebauer, H. 2020. The relationship between digitalization and servitization: The role of servitization in capturing the financial potential of digitalization. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 151, 119804.
Ley, P. Quantitative aspects of psychological assessment. London, UK: Gerald Duckworth & Co; 1972.
Rabetino, R., Kohtamäki, M.,and Gebauer, H. 2017. Strategy map of servitization. International Journal of Production Economics, 192, 144-156.
Teece, D. J. 2007. Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and micro-foundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal, 28, 1319-1350.
Teece, D. J., Pisano, G. and Shuen, A. 1997. Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 18: 509–33.
Visnjic, I., Jovanovic, M., Neely, A., and Engwall, M. 2017. What brings value to outcome-based contract providers? Value drivers in outcome business models. International Journal of Production Economics, 192: 169–81
Warner, K. S. R., and Wäger, M. 2019. Building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation: An ongoing process of strategic renewal. Long Range Planning, 52, 326-349.
West, J., & Bogers, M. 2014. Leveraging external sources of innovation: A review of research on open innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(4), 814-831.
Zott, C., and Amit, R. 2010. Business model design: An activity system perspective. Long Range Planning, 43(2-3), 216-226
Prof. Dr. Andrejs Čirjevskis
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- digital dynamic capabilities
- open innovation
- digital servitization
- micro-foundations of digital capabilities
- technological development and economic uncertainty
- interplay of digital capabilities and open innovation
- future research directions
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