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Sustainability
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Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: Innovation in a Changing Environment
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Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: Innovation in a Changing Environment

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 August 2023) | Viewed by 11101

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Pierluigi Rippa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: digital academic entrepreneurship; student entrepreneurship; open innovation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Digital technologies, digital platforms, and digital infrastructures drastically impact innovation and entrepreneurship, opening new and fascinating opportunities (Nambisan et al., 2019). Firms must adopt digital strategies to innovate and drive better operational performance (Hess et al., 2016). This process is known as digital transformation—a process having transformational or disruptive implications involving digital technologies for businesses (new business models, new types of products/services, new types of customer experiences). Vial (2019) develop a conceptual definition of digital transformation: “a process that aims to improve an entity by triggering significant changes to its properties through combinations of information, computing, communication, and connectivity technologies”.

Studies have investigated several aspects of digital transformation in entrepreneurship: innovative business models, strategic approaches, skills and competencies, territorial dimensions, different sectors, etc. (see, for example, Rippa and Secundo, 2019).

The aim of this Special Issue is to contribute to the debate with innovative methodological investigations (Chen and Tian, 2022) that help identify theories and methodologies for analyzing the future of the digitalization of new ventures, spinoffs, startups, and SMEs.  Submissions may address various cases of entrepreneurs’ approaches to the digital environment, startups facing digital technologies, or SMEs introducing digital technologies to make better and more efficient production processes. The range of analysis will be from an individual (role model or entrepreneurial intention) or organizational (processes and strategies) point of view with an ecosystemic view (network theory or similar) or an internal perspective (resource-based view). Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are welcome, but quali–quantitative approaches like QCA are also welcome.

Chen H., Tian Z., Environmental uncertainty, resource orchestration and digital transformation: a fuzzy-set QCA approach, Journal of Business Research, 139 (2022), pp. 184-193

Hess T., Matt C., Benlian A., Wiesboeck F., Options for formulating a digital transformation strategy

MIS Quart. Execut., 15 (2) (2016), pp. 123-139

Nambisan S., Wright M., Feldman M., The digital transformation of innovation and entrepreneurship: Progess, challenges and key themes,  Research Policy, 48(8) (2019)

Rippa P., Secundo G., Digital academic entrepreneurship: the potential of digital technologies on academic entrepreneurship, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 146, (2019), pp. 900-911

G. Vial, Understanding digital transformation: a review and a research agenda, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28 (2) (2019), pp. 118-144

Prof. Dr. Pierluigi Rippa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digital transformation
  • digital technologies
  • entrepreneurship
  • innovation
  • startup

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 896 KiB  
Article
Key Drivers and Performances of Smart Manufacturing Adoption: A Meta-Analysis
by Juil Kim, Hye-ryun Jeong and Hyesu Park
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6496; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086496 - 11 Apr 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4240
Abstract
This study focused on the smart factory, one of the critical paradigms in the digital transformation in manufacturing, and attempted a meta-analysis to systematically integrate statistical results from existing empirical analysis studies. An integration model, key factors—smart manufacturing adoption—performances, was established from collecting [...] Read more.
This study focused on the smart factory, one of the critical paradigms in the digital transformation in manufacturing, and attempted a meta-analysis to systematically integrate statistical results from existing empirical analysis studies. An integration model, key factors—smart manufacturing adoption—performances, was established from collecting 42 Korean examples of literature. To compare effect sizes between domestic and foreign empirical study results, 11 foreign articles were added, and the moderating effect verification was conducted. As a result of the analysis, (1) the key factors of the adoption and continuous use of smart manufacturing were the network effect, social influences, finances, performance expectancy, facilitating condition, technological capabilities, and entrepreneurship. (2) The adoption and continuous use of smart manufacturing had a significant impact on business performances, especially the financial performance. (3) The impacts of entrepreneurship and the network effect as factors influencing the decision making of smart manufacturing adoption in Korea can be seen to be significantly higher than those of foreign countries. (4) The impact of smart manufacturing adoption on performances in Korea was higher than other countries. The findings of this study will provide practical implications for practitioners optimizing digital transformation manufacturing policies and supporting the adoption of smart manufacturing systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: Innovation in a Changing Environment)
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16 pages, 1258 KiB  
Article
The Relationship between Search Engines and Entrepreneurship Development: A Granger-VECM Approach
by Michael Olumekor, Hossam Haddad and Nidal Mahmoud Al-Ramahi
Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 5053; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065053 - 13 Mar 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2105
Abstract
The decision to set-up a business as a sole proprietor—also individual entrepreneur or sole trader—is a consequential one for every nascent entrepreneur. Sole proprietorship businesses have remained the most popular business structure in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and [...] Read more.
The decision to set-up a business as a sole proprietor—also individual entrepreneur or sole trader—is a consequential one for every nascent entrepreneur. Sole proprietorship businesses have remained the most popular business structure in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, and are vital to the sustainable development of countries and regions. In this research, we developed a model to investigate if increased online interest in sole proprietorships led to the creation of new sole proprietorship businesses in four regions of Russia. Search engine data were retrieved from Russia’s most popular search engine, Yandex, whereas data on newly registered individual entrepreneurship businesses were retrieved from Russia’s Federal Tax Service. Our model was comprised of a range of statistical methods, including the augmented Dickey–Fuller unit root test, the Johansen cointegration test, the Granger causality Wald test, and the vector error correction model. The results revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between search engine data and newly established individual entrepreneurship businesses. This means that interest in individual entrepreneurship, measured through search engine data, influenced the creation of new individual entrepreneurship businesses. This research provides a pioneering empirical investigation of the topic in post-Soviet states, and its main contribution includes introducing search engine data as a key tool for assessing entrepreneurial intention. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: Innovation in a Changing Environment)
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18 pages, 708 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Value Creation on Startups Performance in the Digital Environment: Evidence from Chinese Digital Startups
by Ping Chen
Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4116; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054116 - 24 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3484
Abstract
The use of digital technology has enabled consumers to play an essential role in the success of startups. Priem et al. proposed a demand-value creation-performance framework, which argues that firms can create value for the consumer by exploring consumer demand, and this type [...] Read more.
The use of digital technology has enabled consumers to play an essential role in the success of startups. Priem et al. proposed a demand-value creation-performance framework, which argues that firms can create value for the consumer by exploring consumer demand, and this type of value-creation activity can help firms gain better performance. However, empirical evidence supporting this framework remains scarce. To address this challenge, this study empirically tests Priem et al.’s framework in the context of entrepreneurship. A unique on-site survey dataset of 323 digital startups in the digital environment was employed to explore how consumer demand drives startups to value creation activities and gain better performance. The study results show that consumer demands, in terms of demand heterogeneity, demand uncertainty, and demand interactivity, are positively related to value creation, as reflected by opportunity recognition and consumer innovation. Furthermore, both opportunity recognition and consumer innovation are positively related to the performance of startups. These findings support the demand-side perspective by providing empirical evidence for its key arguments from an entrepreneurial view and extend the demand-side perspective by contextualizing it in the increasingly digital environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: Innovation in a Changing Environment)
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