Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal— Entrepreneurial Decisions in the Digital Age

When:  Sep 3, 2023 from 09:00 to 23:59 (CET)
Associated with  Entrepreneurship (ENT)
SEJ Special Issue Call for Papers: Entrepreneurial Decisions in the Digital Age

Guest Editors:
Carmelo Cennamo (Copenhagen Business School)
John Qi Dong (Nanyang Technological University)
Tobias Kretschmer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich)
Samuele Murtinu (Utrecht University)

SEJ Co-Editor:
Peter Klein (Baylor University)

Submission Due Date: September 3, 2023

Background and Special Issue Purpose:
The present digital age is characterized by the rapid shift from a traditional economy established by the Industrial Revolution to an economy based on digital technologies (Giustiziero et al. 2021). Many economic activities now take place digitally and a vast amount of information and data are made widely available by digital technologies (Karhade and Dong 2021a). Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations increasingly employ new organizations, organizational designs and business models based on new digital technologies such as AI and digital platforms (Kretschmer and Khashabi, 2020; Oehmichen et al. 2022). The new organizing principles they engender (e.g., data-driven decision making and metaorganizational forms) (Cennamo et al. 2020; Kretschmer et al. 2022) can likewise empower entrepreneurial activities and decisions originating from entrepreneurs’ subjective judgment (Foss and Klein, 2012).

Interestingly, digital technologies may become tools that reduce information asymmetries and consequently moral hazard between stakeholders and entrepreneurs (Chakravarty et al. 2021), unlocking innovation potential (Karhade and Dong 2021b). However, digital technologies can also constrain innovation and entrepreneurial initiatives towards specific paths. For instance, digital platforms leverage their extensive API tools, interfaces, add-ons and governance rules to shape the innovation effort and activities of their ecosystem participants towards directions that are aligned with the platform firm’s strategic objectives (Cennamo 2021; Jacobides et al. 2018), constraining what these actors can do. There is a need to extend our understanding about how new technological resources (e.g., AI and digital platforms) adopted within the organization and/or leveraged through other organizations affect the quality and scope of entrepreneurial decisions.

Possible Research Topics and Questions:
This special issue calls for quantitative, qualitative, theoretical or experimental research on entrepreneurial decisions in the digital age. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

1. Digital technologies changing existing entrepreneurial decisions
Digital technologies likely shape how uncertainty is perceived by entrepreneurs as well as the nature and type of uncertainty inherent in entrepreneurial processes and outcomes (Nambisan 2017). This leads to new ways and practices of resolving uncertainty in decisionmaking by means of, for instance, complementarities between digital technologies and human judgment, separation of digital technology-led and human-led tasks, and new organizational forms to make the collection and processing of information necessary to take decisions faster and more efficient. Moreover, digital technologies may change the boundaries of entrepreneurial processes as well as the space of possible outcomes and future scenarios. Some exemplary questions are:
• How does AI augment and/or even automate existing entrepreneurial decisions?
• How does predictive/prescriptive analytics change the way of making existing entrepreneurial decisions?
• How do platform-based business models transform existing entrepreneurial decisions?

2. Digital technologies enabling new entrepreneurial decisions
Digital technologies, digital platforms and digital infrastructures enable new entrepreneurial decisions such as the creation of new ventures as well as the design of corporate spin-outs. These enhanced venturing processes—driven by two fundamental properties of digital technologies, specificity and relationality (von Briel et al. 2018)—open new innovation opportunities and broaden the possibilities for value creation and value capture (Karhade and Dong 2021b). Moreover, under certain conditions, digital technologies may make predicting the evolution of markets, technologies and industries more precise, thus enhancing internationalization in regions where the organization has no past experience, or venturing into new technological domains and areas. Some exemplary questions are:
• Does AI enable the development of new entrepreneurial decisions?
• How do firms develop new entrepreneurial decisions with various analytics?
• Which new entrepreneurial decisions are shaped on and because of digital platforms, and how?

3. Entrepreneurial decisions changed/enabled by digital technologies shape the new structure of industries and markets
Digital technologies transform organizations and their social and business relationships, thus influencing and shaping the structure of industries and markets (Cennamo 2021; Cennamo et al. 2020). Also, digital technologies can help address grand challenges such as climate change through the creation of new/re-design of ecosystems and supply chains as well as new ways of thinking about trust and institutional logics (George et al. 2021). Some exemplary questions are:
• What is the impact of changing entrepreneurial decisions based on digital technologies on the structure of industries and markets?
• What is the impact of new entrepreneurial decisions based on digital technologies on the structure of industries and markets?

Deadline, Submission, and Review Process
Please indicate that your submission is for the special issue on Entrepreneurial Decisions in the Digital Age. Submissions to this special issue should be prepared in accordance with SEJ’s submission process described at https://www.strategicmanagement.net/sej/overview/submission.

Submissions can be made via the SEJ website at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sej.
The deadline for submissions is September 3, 2023.

All papers will be reviewed according to the standard policies of the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. It is anticipated that the special issue will be published in December 2025.

Further Information:
For questions regarding the content of this special issue, please contact the guest editors:
• Carmelo Cennamo, cce.si@cbs.dk
• John Qi Dong, john.dong@ntu.edu.sg
• Tobias Kretschmer, t.kretschmer@lmu.de
• Samuele Murtinu, s.murtinu@uu.nl

For questions about submitting to the special issue, please contact Tobias Kretschmer at t.kretschmer@lmu.de.

References
von Briel, F., Davidsson, P., & Recker, J. (2018). Digital technologies as external enablers of new venture creation in the IT hardware sector. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 42(1), 47-69.
Cennamo, C. (2021). Competing in digital markets: A platform-based perspective. Academy of Management Perspectives, 35(2), 265-291.
Cennamo, C., Dagnino, G. B., Di Minin, A., & Lanzolla, G. (2020). Managing digital transformation: scope of transformation and modalities of value Co-generation and delivery. California Management Review, 62(4), 5-16.
Chakravarty, S., Cumming, D. J., Murtinu, S., Scalera, V. G., & Schwens, C. (2021). Exploring the next generation of international entrepreneurship. Journal of World Business, 56(5), 101229.
Foss, N. J., & Klein, P. G. (2012). Organizing entrepreneurial judgment: A new approach to the firm. Cambridge University Press.
George, G., Merrill, R. K., & Schillebeeckx, S. J. (2021). Digital sustainability and entrepreneurship: How digital innovations are helping tackle climate change and sustainable development. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 45(5), 999-1027.
Giustiziero, G., Kretschmer, T., Somaya, D., & Wu, B. (2022). Hyperspecialization and Hyperscaling: A Resource-based Theory of the Digital Firm. Forthcoming, Strategic Management Journal.
Jacobides, M. G., Cennamo, C., & Gawer, A. (2018). Towards a theory of ecosystems. Strategic Management Journal, 39(8), 2255-2276.
Karhade, P. P., & Dong, J. Q. (2021a). Innovation outcomes of digitally enabled collaborative problemistic search capability. MIS Quarterly, 45(2), 693-718.
Karhade, P. P., & Dong, J. Q. (2021b). Information technology investment and commercialized innovation performance: Dynamic adjustment costs and curvilinear impacts. MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1007-1024.
Kretschmer, T., & Khashabi, P. (2020). Digital transformation and organization design: An integrated approach. California Management Review, 62(4), 86-104.
Kretschmer, T., Leiponen, A., Schilling, M., & Vasudeva, G. (2022). Platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations: Implications for platform strategies. Strategic Management Journal, 43(3), 405-424.
Nambisan, S. (2017). Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6), 1029-1055.
Oehmichen, J., Schult, A., & Dong, J. Q. (2022). Successfully organizing AI innovation through collaboration with startups. MIS Quarterly Executive, forthcoming.