How does digital transformation affect the ESG performance of Chinese manufacturing state-owned enterprises?-Based on the mediating mechanism of dynamic capabilities and the moderating mechanism of the institutional environment

Against the background of sustainable development policies, the ESG performance of Chinese manufacturing enterprises is still generally poor. As the leading enterprises in the manufacturing industry, state-owned enterprises should take the lead in responding to the national call for sustainable development and actively explore the path to improve their ESG performance. This study aims to explore whether and how state-owned manufacturing enterprises can improve their poor ESG performance through digital transformation in the digital economy. This study takes Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share state-owned listed manufacturing enterprises as the research sample and constructs an unbalanced panel. OLS regression analysis is used to empirically test the impact of digital transformation on the ESG performance of the sample firms. Further attempts are made to discuss the influence mechanism of digital transformation from the perspectives of dynamic capabilities and the institutional environment through stepwise and hierarchical regression methods, respectively. The study shows that, firstly, digital transformation is an important influencing factor in promoting the improvement of enterprises' ESG performance, and at the same time, there are significant structural differences in this influence. Second, under the dynamic capability perspective, digital transformation can improve corporate ESG performance through an absorptive feedback mechanism, matching response mechanism, and innovation efficiency enhancement mechanism. Third, from the perspective of the institutional environment, the informal system has a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between digital transformation and ESG performance, i.e., the informal system and digital transformation have a synergistic governance effect on corporate ESG performance. The moderating effect of the formal institutional environment on digital transformation and ESG performance is not significant. The findings of the study clarify the controversy over the relationship between digital transformation and ESG performance of manufacturing state-owned enterprises and enrich the research on the influencing factors of corporate ESG performance. It also provides a theoretical foundation and empirical evidence for manufacturing SOEs to improve ESG performance and lead to sustainable development.

Research on factors influencing the academic entrepreneurial ability of teachers in the digital age: Evidence from China

In the contemporary digital economy, economic development increasingly relies on the innovation and dissemination of knowledge. Academic entrepreneurship, as a direct channel for knowledge dissemination into the marketplace, is significantly influenced by digital technology. Consequently, how to improve academic entrepreneurial ability has become a hot research topic. This study is grounded in the theory of reciprocal determinism within the context of the digital economy. We use the "2019 China Digital Economy Development Index White Paper" and collect data from 1843 survey questionnaires in China to conduct empirical research with a ridge regression model. It primarily focuses on the following individual factors and social environmental factors on academic entrepreneurial ability of teachers (AEAT): digital economy (DE), organizational support (OS), policy environment (PE), and personal learning growth (PLG). First, the findings show that the DE, OS, PE, and PLG have a significant positive impact on improving AEAT. Second, the results also indicate that social environmental factors relative to personal factors will have a greater impact. Finally, this study not only presents the first attempt to establish a connection between DE and AEAT but also holds significant managerial implications for enhancing AEAT within the context of the DE. Despite the increasing body of literature on academic entrepreneurship, the research domain pertaining specifically to AEAT remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive theoretical development. There is a pressing need for more systematic and thorough investigations to unveil the black box of factors influencing AEAT in the context of the DE.

The spatial and temporal situation of China's digital technology innovation and its influencing factors

Digital technology innovation is the core driving force for the high-quality development of the digital economy, and in-depth exploration of the regional distribution pattern and formation mechanism of digital technology innovation in China is conducive to the rational layout and coordinated development of the inter-provincial digital economy. Based on the Reference Relationship Table of the Classification of Core Industries of Digital Economy and the International Patent Classification (2023), the patent authorization data of digital technology from 2012 to 2022 were obtained, and the spatiotemporal situation of China's digital technology innovation was analyzed by using ArcGIS software, Dagum's Gini coefficient, and Moran's I index, and the spatial Dubin panel model was used to explore the influencing factors of digital technology innovation. It is found that: (1) the scale and vitality of China's digital technology innovation have increased significantly, and there are obvious spatial differentiation characteristics, and the innovation level of "eastern coastal-central and western interior" is decreasing, forming a cluster distribution pattern in the Yangtze River Delta region, Beijing, Guangdong, and other places, and the degree of agglomeration is decreasing. (2) The overall regional differences in China's digital technology innovation are large, the differences between the East and the West dominate the interregional differences, and the net differences between regions are the main factors leading to regional differences. (3) There is a significant positive spatial correlation between the scale and vitality of digital technology innovation, which has a significant spatial spillover effect. (4) The results confirm that the level of economic development, digital access, financial scientific and technological support, technology market development level, and R&D intensity have a significant positive impact on the scale and vitality of digital technology innovation; The investment in scientific and technological talents has a significant positive impact on the scale of digital technology innovation, but has no significant impact on the vitality of digital technology innovation.

Characteristics and associated factors of health information-seeking behaviour among patients with inflammatory bowel disease in the digital era: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Health Information-Seeking Behaviour (HISB) is necessary for self-management and medical decision-making among patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). With the advancement of information technology, health information needs and seeking are reshaped among patients with IBD. This scoping review aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of HISB of people with IBD in the digital age.

METHODS

This scoping review adhered to Arksey and O'Malley's framework and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews frameworks (PRISMA-ScR). A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and three Chinese databases from January 1, 2010 to April 10, 2023. Employing both deductive and inductive content analysis, we scrutinized studies using Wilson's model.

RESULTS

In total, 56 articles were selected. Within the information dimension of HISB among patients with IBD, treatment-related information, particularly medication-related information, was identified as the most critical information need. Other information requirements included basic IBD-related information, daily life and self-management, sexual and reproductive health, and other needs. In the sources dimension, of the eight common sources of information, the internet was the most frequently mentioned source of information, while face-to-face communication with healthcare professionals was the preferred source. Associated factors were categorized into six categories: demographic characteristics, psychological aspects, role-related or interpersonal traits, environmental aspects, source-related characteristics, and disease-related factors. Moreover, the results showed five types of HISB among people with IBD, including active searching, ongoing searching, passive attention, passive searching, and avoid seeking. Notably, active searching, especially social information seeking, appeared to be the predominant common type of HISB among people with IBD in the digital era.

CONCLUSION

Information needs and sources for patients with IBD exhibit variability, and their health information-seeking behaviour is influenced by a combination of diverse factors, including resource-related and individual factors. Future research should focus on the longitudinal changes in HISB among patients with IBD. Moreover, efforts should be made to develop information resources that are both convenient and provide credible information services, although the development of such resources requires further investigation and evaluation.

From atoms to bits: Resource mobilization of non-digital, hybrid, and digital cleantech startups

Climate change is one of the most critical challenges to tackle in this century, where innovations developed and commercialized by cleantech startups are crucial contributors to achieve emission reduction targets. Entrepreneurship scholars have long presumed that resource mobilization is essential for startups to transit successfully through the conception and commercialization life cycle stages. Yet, we have a limited understanding of how resource mobilization varies across the three startups types of non-digital, hybrid - an intermediate type of non-digital and digital startups -, and digital cleantech startups. Drawing on insights from 16 semi-structured interviews with startups, investors, and industry experts in the U.S. cleantech industry, as well as secondary data, this study provides a novel framework that identifies the resource mobilization approaches of cleantech startups disentangled by the three startup types. The findings indicate that non-digital cleantech startups face the most severe resource mobilization challenges, followed by hybrid and digital cleantech startups, respectively. The study contributes to the literature on resource mobilization of cleantech startups and digital entrepreneurship. It also outlines implications for startups and venture capital investors as practitioners as well as for policymakers.

Top management team career experience heterogeneity, digital transformation, and the corporate green innovation: a moderated mediation analysis

Introduction

Drawing upon upper echelon theory and the resource-based view, this study employs a moderated mediation model to investigate the moderating role and underlying mechanisms of digital transformation in the influence of top management teams (TMT) on corporate green innovation.

Methods

Our analysis of panel data from 19,155 Chinese A-share listed companies (2011-2020) demonstrates that TMT career experience heterogeneity has a positive effect on green innovation, a relationship that is further strengthened by digital transformation.

Results

This study shows the role of digital transformation in amplifying the effects of TMT diversity on green innovation and the crucial role of industry-academia-research collaboration as a mediator. Heterogeneity analysis highlights that non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) show more agility than state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in leveraging heterogeneous TMT to drive green innovation. Conversely, green innovation in SOEs benefits more from digital transformation, which includes both its direct and indirect effects of digital transformation. Enterprises located in non-Yangtze River Economic Belt regions benefit more from digital transformation, demonstrating the importance of a balanced distribution of digital resources.

Discussion

This study provides novel insights into leveraging inclusive leadership and digital capabilities to enhance ecological sustainability. This study underscores the potential of diversified TMTs and digitalization technology integration to catalyze green innovation, which is critical for environmentally responsible transformation.

Digital entrepreneurship from cellular data: How omics afford the emergence of a new wave of digital ventures in health

Data has become an indispensable input, throughput, and output for the healthcare industry. In recent years, omics technologies such as genomics and proteomics have generated vast amounts of new data at the cellular level including molecular, structural, and functional levels. Cellular data holds the potential to innovate therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics, consumer products, or even ancestry services. However, data at the cellular level is generated with rapidly evolving omics technologies. These technologies use scientific knowledge from resource-rich environments. This raises the question of how new ventures can use cellular-level data from omics technologies to create new products and scale their business. We report on a series of interviews and a focus group discussion with entrepreneurs, investors, and data providers. By conceptualizing omics technologies as external enablers, we show how characteristics of cellular-level data negatively affect the combination mechanisms that drive venture creation and growth. We illustrate how data characteristics set boundary conditions for innovation and entrepreneurship and highlight how ventures seek to mitigate their impact.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12525-023-00669-w.

"A living lab within a lab": approaches and challenges for scaling digital public health in resource-constrained settings

A living lab is an emerging concept, particularly in Europe, as a vehicle to develop digital innovations through a process of co-produced design and development, which takes place, physically and socially, in real-life use contexts. However, there is limited research relating to guiding our understanding of the process by which such labs are established, and digital innovations are co-created and scaled to other settings requiring similar solutions. Furthermore, beyond Europe, the concept of a living lab has not found widespread application in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in their public health contexts. Public health systems offer the unique scaling challenge of "all or nothing", implying that data are required from the whole population rather than isolated pilot settings. The living lab approach promises the rich potential to strengthen public systems but comes with twin interconnected challenges. First, for building appropriate digital solutions to address local public health challenges, and second, in scaling them to other public health facilities. This article investigates these twin challenges through ongoing empirical work in India and identifies three key domains of analysis, which are as follows: the first concerns the process of establishing an enabling structure of a "living lab within a lab"; the second concerns leveraging the capabilities offered by free and open-source digital technologies; and the third concerns the driving impetus to scaling through agile and co-constructed technical support.

Effects of digital economy on social entrepreneurship: Evidence from China

Social entrepreneurship provides novel entrepreneurial solutions for complex social and environmental problems. Research on the antecedents of social entrepreneurship has emphasized the importance of sociocultural and economic factors; however, little is known about the influence of the digital economy in this context. Integrating the digital economy studies and social entrepreneurship studies for the first time, we propose that the development of the digital economy contributes to the growth of regional social enterprises. We further predict that the effect of the digital economy on social entrepreneurship is mediated by the improvement of regional government activism and regional innovation capability. This study contributes to the literature about the antecedents of social entrepreneurship and effect of the digital economy. This study also provides some practical recommendations for promoting digital technology for the good and stimulating social entrepreneurship with the power of the digital economy.

Enablers and inhibitors of digital startup evolution: a multi-case study of Swedish business incubators

Global advances in digital technology are facilitating corresponding rises in digital entrepreneurship and its startup manifestation. There are many uncertainties on the road to digital startup evolution, some of which may be successfully navigated with the assistance of business incubators. While these organisations provide valuable guidance and support to the startup community, their efforts are at least partly constrained by the lack of a consistent, coherent roadmap to guide both them and their incubatees. T0 help efforts to develop such a map, this paper seeks to identify factors that influence digital startup evolution within an incubator setting through a multiple-case study focusing on digital startups under the umbrella of three business incubators in the Swedish city Umeå. Sets of enabling and inhibitory factors are identified through literature searches and the case studies. The latter may include inertia and possibly attitudes towards failure. In addition, present the Ideation Dynamics Model as a guide for both incubators and digital startups is proposed.

Impact of green technology innovation based on IoT and industrial supply chain on the promotion of enterprise digital economy

With the gradual deterioration of the natural environment, a green economy has become a competing goal for all countries. As a trend of green innovation development, the digital economy has become a research hotspot for scientists. In this article, we study the supply chain management of enterprises in green innovation and digital economy development and complete the identification and demand prediction of warehouse goods through the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). As the stuff meets the goods detection and storage, we employ an intelligent method to detect and classify the goods. The demand prediction analysis is carried out based on historical data on goods demand in the enterprise. The absolute error between the prediction result and the actual demand within 1 week is less than 30 goods by the particle swarm optimization-support vector machine (PSO-SVM) method used in this article. First, the goods identification task is completed based on video surveillance data using YOLOv4, and the recognition rate is as high as 98.3%. This article realises enterprises' intelligent supply chain management through the intelligent identification of goods and the demand forecasting analysis of goods in the warehouse, which provides new ideas for green innovation and digital economy development.

Digital finance innovation in green manufacturing: a bibliometric approach

In the era of Industry 4.0, the innovative applications of the industrial internet of things continue to deepen, and the trend of digital transformation of the green manufacturing industry continues to expand. In this context, the study of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing enterprises is conducive to transforming and upgrading enterprises and national economic development. In order to review the theoretical foundations and the current state of research under this topic, this paper provides an overview of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing companies based on 296 papers published between 1900 and 2021 through bibliometric and scientific visualization methods. This paper uses HistCite to identify the most influential authors, institutions, and countries and uncover the lineage of research on digital finance innovation in green manufacturing companies. At the same time, VOSviewer is used to identify research hotspots and research clusters under the topic. Finally, on this basis, this paper classifies the types of digital innovation from the perspective of value creation. It proposes a theoretical framework for the realization path of digital finance innovation in green manufacturing enterprises based on intelligent servitization and orchestration capabilities. The findings of this paper enrich the existing innovation theory and facilitate scholars to conduct future research more effectively.

How digitalization reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during COVID-19

The emergence of new digital technologies has transformed entrepreneurship and, very likely, enabled many new and established ventures to avoid bankruptcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital technologies are key to identifying, evaluating and exploiting opportunities, scaling a venture's competitiveness, improving efficiency and innovating, especially during uncertain times. We explore how digital technologies reinvented entrepreneurial resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and distill the digital artifacts, platforms and infrastructures used by entrepreneurs to demonstrate entrepreneurial resilience. We analyzed 42 reflective interviews featuring successful entrepreneurs from How I Built This "Resilience Series" podcast that explore how entrepreneurs responded to the COVID-19 crisis. We adopted a systematic approach to identify and describe the behaviors, actions and strategies related to digitalization to reinvent the business in the uncertain and resource-constrained context of COVID-19. The data analysis yielded thirteen first-order codes categorized into five second-order themes: creative digital pivoting, digital infrastructures, social impact through digital technology, burdens to digital adoption, and growth through digitalization. These second-order themes reveal to function as both enablers and barriers to entrepreneurial resilience in this adverse context. Our exploratory analysis suggests how digitalization influences entrepreneurial resilience.

The role of digitalization in business and management: a systematic literature review

Digitalization is a powerful engine for economic growth in the world. In 2018, digitally transformed firms represented 13.5 billion US dollars of global GDP and, towards the end of 2023, they are expected to represent 53.3 billion US dollars, over half of the general nominal GDP (Statista, Nominal GDP driven by digitally transformed and other enterprises worldwide 2018–2023. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1134766/nominal-gdp-driven-by-digitally-transformed-enterprises/, 2022). The main objective of this study is to provide information (highlighting principal research topics and research agendas) from the literature on state-of-the-art digitalization within firms through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). In all, 119 review articles on the most mature functional areas of the firm are analyzed: management, marketing, and finance and accounting, published in the WOS over the period 2018-April 2022. In this study, key relevant tendencies are identified in the most mature areas of the firm, which are the impact of digital technologies on the analysis of consumer behavior; digitalization and green innovation within organizations; and blockchain technology applied to financial services. The main contributions of this work are as follows: (1) to provide the most complete and up-to-date review of digitalization from a global perspective, summarizing the current state of knowledge within an integrated framework; (2) to reduce the complexity of digitalization by offering structure and clarity; and (3) to offer links between digitalization and established points of view in the literature on management, marketing, finance, and accounting. The novelty of this paper is centered on a joint analysis of digitalization, digital transformation, and digital technologies, taking into account the most mature functional areas of the firm.

Digital innovation in entrepreneurial firms: a systematic literature review

Entrepreneurial firms are central actors in the process of the generation and diffusion of digital innovation which, on the other hand, provides a wide range of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Although existing research has produced several contributions on both topics, the knowledge generated in the field appears fragmented and the findings are sometimes ambiguous. The reason for this fragmentation can be traced back to the lack of reference frameworks that clarify the most used concepts, thus providing a shared language. This study aims to consolidate the state-of-art of scholarly research published over the past 20 years at the intersection of the innovation and entrepreneurship fields of study. To this aim, we carried out a systematic literature review by analyzing a set of 185 papers in order to find what are the relevant topics in the investigated research domain. This activity was performed using MySLR software. Besides a descriptive picture of the scientific activity, a map of the literature published to date that simultaneously addresses the two themes, is provided. In particular, we characterized the six relevant topics in the investigated research domain: start-ups’ collaboration networks, business-model innovation, digital platforms, digital ventures, the digital entrepreneur’s profile, and digital-innovation ecosystems. Based on these results the article proposes three main research directions for future research: multi-level analysis of Digital Innovation in Entrepreneurial Ventures; interdisciplinary approaches; development of specific theories for igital Innovation. Overall, the value of research is to provide a framework for analyzing the phenomenon of innovation in and with entrepreneurial firms that can be used as a reference model for both entrepreneurship and innovation management researchers.

Nexus of digital platforms, innovation capability, and strategic alignment to enhance innovation performance in the Asia Pacific region: a dynamic capability perspective

The direct influence of digital platforms on organizational efficiency, financial performance, and strategy attracts the close attention of researchers. The complex mechanisms and pathways of digital platforms on transformation capacity, however, are still unclear at the global and Asia Pacific levels. Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we empirically explore how digital platforms augment organizational innovation performance. We advance the current literature on digital platforms by finding that digital platform capability boosts an organization’s dynamism and innovation performance. Furthermore, we extend the literature by revealing that, indirectly, innovation capability and strategic alignment have a substantial influence over digital platform capability and innovation performance. Finally, the study formulates a conceptual model from a dynamic capability perspective, rather than from a resource-based view, and test it using the responses collected from 153 Pakistani manufacturing firms.

Extended Generativity Theory on Digital Platforms

The assumption that generativity engenders unbounded growth has acquired an almost taken-for-granted position in information systems and management literature. Against this premise, we examine the relationship between generativity and user base growth in the context of a digital platform. To do this, we synthesize the literature on generativity into two views, social interaction (expansion of ecosystem boundaries) and product view (expansion of product boundaries), that jointly and individually relate to user base growth. Both views help us explain how opening a platform relates to the emergence and resolution of conflicting expectations in a platform ecosystem that result in new functions and expanded use. We adopt a panel vector autoregressive approach combining data from six large transaction platforms that engaged with open-source developer communities. We found that the dominant narrative of generativity engendering growth, although generally supported by our analysis, obscures the fact that the inverse is also true; that is, growth can lead to expansion of product boundaries (inverse generativity) and that generativity can be bounded; that is, growth can stabilize ecosystem boundaries (bounded generativity). Against this background, we propose an extended generativity theory that presents generativity and growth in an integrative view and raises awareness about the limitations of the “unbounded growth” claim. We conclude that there is value in separating the two views of generativity conceptually and analytically, along with their relationship to user base growth, and we call for research on the pathways through which generativity produces growth.

History: Ola Henfridsson, Senior Editor; Robert Wayne Gregory, Associate Editor.

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.1209 .

Major Determinants of Innovation Performance in the Context of Healthcare Sector

Through the innovation network (IN) and the use of artificial intelligence (AI), this study aims to look into the innovation performance (IP) of the healthcare industry. Digital innovation (DI) is also tested as a mediator. For the collection of data, cross-sectional methods and quantitative research designs were used. To test the study hypotheses, the SEM technique and multiple regression technique were used. Results reveal that AI and the innovation network support the attainment of innovation performance. The finding demonstrates that the relationship between INs and IP links and AI adoption and IP links is mediated through DI. The healthcare industry plays a vital role in facilitating public health and improving the living standards of the people. This sector's growth and development are largely dependent on its innovativeness. This study highlights the major determinants of IP in the healthcare industry in terms of IN and AI adoption. This study adds to the literature's knowledge via an innovative proposal in which the mediation role of DI among IN-IP and AI adoption-innovation links is investigated.

Exploring adaptive mirroring in healthcare IT architectures

Digital transformation is demanding for incumbent organizations such as healthcare, where legacy-based IT architectures challenge the establishment of effective digital services. We refer to this as the IT silo problem, where multiple non-consolidated IT systems are implemented to support expert practices. In this paper, we analyze this challenge using a mirroring lens. Our research question is, how can we create efficient digital services, utilizing the existing legacy systems in healthcare IT architectures? Our empirical evidence comes from a Norwegian case and contributes to the literature on IT architecture within Healthcare. First, we demonstrate how strict mirroring leading to sub-optimization and silofication is a major cause for the presence of IT silos. Second, we describe a process towards adaptive mirroring, and the resulting adaptive mirroring architecture. Adaptive mirroring is an architectural combinatory device that facilitates the design and use of efficient services, while also improving the flexibility of IT architectures.

Digital “x”—Charting a Path for Digital-Themed Research

We live in a time when digital technologies reshape most aspects of business and social life. This challenges received assumptions about modes of operation in organizations. As a result, scholars and practitioners increasingly use the label “digital” to signify that something has changed to the extent that a plethora of long-established management concepts are expressed in a new formulaic form of “digital x,” and x can stand for innovation, strategy, transformation, infrastructure, etc. In the information systems discipline and beyond, “digital” has emerged as an oft-used conceptual label to characterize age-long phenomena hitherto described by the IT (or x) label. There is a sense among academic and practitioner communities that digital and IT are not mere synonyms, but beyond the hype, something fundamentally different is being signaled when the “digital” label is invoked. This paper traces the intellectual roots and foundations of the growing use of “digital” as a conceptual label, identifies when the label use is warranted as well as outlines implications that the moniker holds for future scholarship, policy, and practice. In particular, the paper offers actionable guidance that enables more reflective use of the term “digital” as we move forward.

Distributed innovation, knowledge re-orchestration, and digital product innovation performance: the moderated mediation roles of intellectual property protection and knowledge exchange activities

Purpose

Despite the support of digital technology, there is a high degree of ambiguity and fluidity in the boundaries of digital products. This is because the addition of distributed innovation entities has an impact on the scope and scale of digital product innovation. Building upon the knowledge orchestration perspective, this study aims to construct a theoretical model, comprising distributed innovation, knowledge reorchestration and digital product innovation performance, and discuss the moderating roles of intellectual property protection and knowledge exchange activities.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a sample of 362 Chinese science and technology enterprises, the scholarship’s framework and hypotheses were tested using regression and bootstrap analysis.

Findings

The results confirm that distributed innovation positively enhances enterprises’ digital product innovation performance; knowledge reorchestration plays a partial mediating role in the linkage amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance; and intellectual property protection and knowledge exchange activities negatively and positively moderate the mediating role of knowledge reorchestration amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance, respectively.

Originality/value

This empirical scholarship explores the effect mechanism of intellectual property protection, knowledge exchange activities and knowledge reorchestration on the linkage amongst distributed innovation and digital product innovation performance. This paper expands the theoretical application of distributed innovation, knowledge orchestration and other related theories in the context of the digital economy and further provides a policymaking reference for the improvement of enterprises’ digital product innovations.

Tracing the evolution of digitalisation research in business and management fields: Bibliometric analysis, topic modelling and deep learning trend forecasting

Research on digitalisation trends and digital topics has become one of the most prolific streams of research within the fields of business and management during the course of the past few years. The purpose of this study is to provide a general picture of the intellectual structure and the conceptual space of this research realm. To this purpose, 6067 publications related to digital topics, indexed in the business and management categories of Web of Science (WoS), and dated from 1990 to 2020 are explored based on the approaches of bibliometric analysis, topic modelling and trend forecasting. The results of the bibliometric analysis comprise insights into the publication and citation structure, the most productive authors, the most productive universities, the most productive countries, the most productive journals, the most cited studies and the most prevalent themes and sub-themes on digitalisation in business and management. In addition, the outcomes of the topic modelling give new knowledge on the latent topical structure along with the rising, falling and fluctuating trends of this literature. In addition, the results of the trend forecasting enable readers to have a glimpse of how the underlying trends of the literature will probably change within the next years until 2025. These results provide guidance and orientation for both academics and practitioners who are initiating or currently developing their efforts in this discipline.

Digital Gifts at the Workplace

This study builds on the emergence of new gifting practices using e-hongbaos which are monetary gifts transferred between individuals made possible by digital communication platforms. This is an exploratory study on the impact of these innovations on intra-organizational relationships. Three types of intra-organizational relationships are considered: the employee's relationship with the organization, with the team, and with the manager. The findings of the study indicate positive impacts of e-hongbao at all organizational levels. The authors also identify the varying effects of e-hongbao on intra-organizational relationship outcomes depending on the occasion of gifting, as well as the mode, direction, and measure. Specifically, ‘group' e-hongbao, a gamified group-gift enabled by the digitalization of gifting, has the strongest influence on intra-organizational relationships. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice in the workplace and also offer future research directions.

New exploration of creativity: Cross-validation analysis of the factors influencing multiteam digital creativity in the transition phase

Multiteam digital creativity (MTDC) is a new domain of creativity study that fits the new developments of the digital era, thus scholars have called for exploring MTDC in the fine-graining phase. This paper responds to this call, and adopts two studies and cross-validation analysis to explore the theoretical framework of the impact factors of MTDC in the transition phase. Study 1 adopts the qualitative analysis method of rooted theory to explore a more comprehensive impact factor and to maximize the new theory's saturation. Study 2 adopts the CL-WG DEMATEL method, one analysis method of group decision-making and optimized concept lattice, which could cross-validation analyze the results of Study 1 and further determine the importance of the factors. The results of the studies indicate that the influencing factors of MTDC are multilevel, and the factors such as the organizational digital climate, team psychological empowerment, individual digital cognition and emotion, and leadership competence have greater impacts on MTDC. This indicates that the transition phase has a unique internal mechanism. This paper constructs a theoretical framework of factors influencing MTDC in the transition phase and provides new theoretical and practical references for how organizations could fully stimulate MTDC in the digital era. In addition, the cross-validated analytical method further enriches the study tools in the domain of organizational behavior.

Impact of enterprise digital transformation on capacity utilization: Evidence from China

Based on empirical analysis of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, we demonstrate that enterprise digital transformation has a significant impact on improving capacity utilization. Digital transformation is a significant driving force behind enterprise-specific production and innovation. Furthermore, enterprise innovation and enterprise-specialized production play a mediating role in the impact of enterprise digital transformation on capacity utilization. Based on these baseline findings, heterogenous analysis reveals that the impact of digital transformation on capacity utilization is significant for firms with larger capital scales or poor governance and manufacturing abilities. However, it is less important for enterprises with small- and medium-sized capital scales or with more standardized governance, as well as non-manufacturing (service) enterprises.

Managing unbounded digital transformation: exploring the role of tensions in a digital transformation initiative in the forestry industry

Purpose

Prior research has highlighted the pervasive importance of digital technologies in business and societal settings, but their enabling role in digital transformation, and effective forms of organization to address tensions that arise during attempts to promote it, have been insufficiently explored. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why tensions affect clusters established to foster digital transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical data were acquired through a qualitative exploratory holistic single case study, focused on the Swedish Cluster of Forest Technology. This included interviews with informants, selected by homogeneous purposive sampling, and event observation to investigate the personal perspectives of representatives of every company engaged in the cluster, followed by a thematic analysis of their comments.

Findings

The case study revealed three major tensions, between knowledge flow, collaboration and competition, but also others that were interrelated with those major tensions, related to matters such as trust and protection of intellectual property, power equality and hierarchy, and networks that must be managed in digital transformation efforts.

Originality/value

The paper extends understanding of the tensions that arise, and their management, in digital transformation processes.

Clients’ digitalization, audit firms’ digital expertise, and audit quality: evidence from China

Purpose

This study aims to examine whether clients’ degree of digitalization and audit firms’ expertise in information technology (IT) influence audit quality (AQ).

Design/methodology/approach

Data of Chinese A-share firms listed on the primary board of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2011 to 2019 are taken as the sample. All the data are obtained from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research. Clients’ digitalization is determined using the keywords “AI technology,” “blockchain,” “cloud computing,” “big data technology” and “digital technology.” Auditor firm’s digital expertise is determined by the proportion of higher IT expertise. As the proxy for AQ, this study uses audit fees, given that its quantum reflects the effort auditors expend that in turn affects the AQ.

Findings

A fixed-effect regression model shows that clients with high digitalization attain AQ. This study also finds a significant and positive coefficient of audit fees, indicating that AQ is high in the same situation if an audit firm’s IT is mature and developed. Furthermore, results confirm the moderating effect of clients’ digitalization and auditors’ expertise and on AQ. Auditors’ expertise in IT mitigates the audit risk and increase AQ.

Originality/value

Findings can enhance AQ and corporate governance literature by clarifying how external audits must evolve through digitalization and incorporating newly developed digital tools such as big data, analytics, artificial intelligence and robotic process automation. This study also provides important insights regarding how the development of new digital tools allow the audit profession to perform as a corporate governance mechanism.

Effects of Digital Transformation on Environmental Governance of Mining Enterprises: Evidence from China

Digitization offers fresh impetus to the transformation and upgrading of mining enterprises, while on the other hand, the rapid development and broad application of digital technologies make the environmental governance of mining enterprises the most important themes of theoretical research and practical exploration. In this paper, A-share companies listed between 2007 and 2020 are taken as samples to study the influence of digital transformation on the environmental governance of mining enterprises, and its relative acting paths. Our main research methods are multiple linear regression analysis, the panel fixed-effect model and the intermediary effect model. The results show that digital transformation significantly improves the environmental governance of mining enterprises, which is still tenable even after going through a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. It is found via the path test that, by strengthening the supervision of the media, the digital transformation performed in mining enterprises helps improve their environmental governance level, but the comparability of the accounting data shows no significant mediation effect between digital transformation and environmental governance. The heterogeneity test found that the promotion of digital transformation in environmental governance was significant only in non-state-owned enterprises, large-scale enterprises, and mature-growth enterprises. The findings enrich studies on the economic consequences and the environmental governance influences brought by mining enterprise's transformation based on advanced technologies. This provides an important reference and is of great heuristic significance in promoting digital transformation and strengthening the environmental governance of mining enterprises.

Role of digitalization in environment, social and governance, and sustainability: Review-based study for implications

Digitalization gives people access to a vast network of untapped data, which has the potential to help society and the environment. Smart systems connected to the internet can systematically provide a unique opportunity to solve difficulties related to long-term sustainability. The goals are to create an egalitarian, ecologically sustainable, and healthy society. Technological resources are envisioned as game-changing instruments. Three key concerns integration benefits are highlighted here: (i) sustainable development goals, (ii) socio-economic development, and (iii) the role of digital technology in environmental sustainability. This viewpoint describes the potential that digitization can create a future sustainable society. The technological network would unite the urban and rural worlds under a shared banner of sustainable development, keeping all social elements in the loop. Nations that take a comprehensive strategy will be able to provide equitable growth and an efficient, sustainable, and digital existence for their citizens. As a result, digitization provides better living conditions, active public involvement, clean governance, and transparency in public welfare programs and processes. People who are well-informed, self-aware, and digitally equipped will be better learners, thinkers, reformers, participators, and change and growth agents, marching forward on sustainable progress. The advantages of digitization in hastening the transition to sustainable industrial processes and improving people's health and happiness are explored. Finally, the perspective encapsulates the advantages of digitization by offering a holistic vision of how technology could aid in addressing major challenges such as endangered world biodiversity and climate change.

Software Components and Product Variety in a Platform Ecosystem: A Dynamic Network Analysis of WordPress

Software components such as application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by external developers are vital to online digital platforms. Although APIs generally increase the variety of products according to anecdote, the precise relationship between the categories of APIs and product variety is not yet known. We find that APIs, regarding their use frequency, are categorized into three groups. The core is a group of frequently used APIs, whereas the periphery is a group of sparsely used APIs. In a large and mature platform ecosystem, an additional group of APIs, the regular core, mainly provided by third-party developers, emerges. APIs in the regular core are the main driver of product variety. However, we also find that the strength of this effect diminishes in a newly created product category when most of the new products are built by duplicating the usage of APIs from other products. A platform owner can stimulate developers’ creativity by acting as a bridge between digital product providers and third-party developers. It can collect functional needs from third-party developers and then share them with product providers. Therefore, the latter can build APIs that developers need.

Governing digital crisis responses: platform standards and the dilemma of COVID-19 contact tracing

In response to the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, various developers turned to smartphone-based contact tracing to address the challenges of manual tracing. Due to the presence of network effects, i.e., the effectiveness of contact tracing applications increases with the number of users, information technology standards were critical to the technology's success. The standardization efforts in Europe led to a variety of trade-offs concerning the choice of an appropriate technological architecture due to the contradictory tensions resulting from the dualism between the need for contact tracing data to contain the pandemic and the need for data minimization to preserve user privacy. Drawing predominantly on the software platform and standards literature, we conduct an interpretive case study to examine the emergence and consequences of this multi-layered decision situation. Our findings reveal how Google and Apple were able to limit the individual leeway of external developers, thereby effectively resolving the European standards war. Furthermore, we identify and discuss the various short-term and long-term trade-offs associated with the standardization of contact tracing applications and translate our findings into recommendations for policy makers with respect to future crisis situations. Specifically, we propose a strategy grounded in our data that enables responsible actors to make goal-oriented and rapid decisions under time constraints.

Complementarity Between Investment in Information Technology (IT) and IT Human Resources: Implications for Different Types of Firm Innovation

Innovation is an important means by which firms generate new revenue streams for topline growth. Given the information intensity of innovation, a key question that managers face is: How do we organize our IT-related resource investments to promote innovation performance? This is a consequential question because different types of innovation incur varying levels of upside potential, failure risk and investment costs. In this research, we aim to answer this question by distinguishing four types of innovations—incremental, radical, non-IT related and IT related—that firms aim to produce and examining the extent to which each of these types benefits from complementary investments in IT human resources and IT compared with either type of investment alone. Using patent data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, our analysis of 36,812 firm-year observations reveals that complementary investments in IT human resources and IT are associated with a 117% increase in incremental innovation, a 155% increase in radical innovation, a 173% increase in non–IT-related innovation and a 161% increase in IT-related innovation. The results of this study can be helpful in enabling managers to make informed decisions about how to organize and get the most out of their resource investments based on their innovation objectives.

Corporate Digital Transformation and Green Innovation: A Quasi-Nature Experiment from Integration of Informatization and Industrialization in China

In the era of the digital economy, the rise and application of digital technologies have led to a series of systematic changes and disruptive innovations within enterprises. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of "Integration of Informatization and Industrialization", this paper examines the economic consequences of digital transformation from the standpoint of corporate green innovation, utilizing China's listed manufacturing firms as the research object. Using the DID model, it is discovered that through the implementation of corporate digital transformation, the output of green innovation increases significantly. The conclusions are still robust when using the parallel trend test, PSM-DID, placebo test, and the test of deleting the sample entering the pilot in the current year. Extended analyses find that corporate digital transformation has a greater effect on green innovation in regions with weaker digital economy, in industries with less rivalry, and in firms with larger size. The conclusions of this paper not only advance research on digital transformation and its economic consequences, but also provides theoretical proof and practical insights for advancing corporate digital transformation and enhancing the green development system.

The too-much-of-a-good-thing effect of digitalization capability on radical innovation: the role of knowledge accumulation and knowledge integration capability

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the complex relationship between digitalization capability (DC) and radical innovation performance (RIP). In particular, this study sheds new light on the results of previous studies on the effects of DC on firm innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors obtained questionnaire data from 271 IT managers of randomly selected high-tech Chinese firms. The data was used to empirically test the proposed hypotheses using hierarchical regression analysis.

Findings

The findings of this study reveal that DC has an inverted U-shaped effect on RIP. Knowledge accumulation (KA) has a partial mediating effect on the DC–RIP link. Knowledge integration capability (KIC) was found to moderate the DC–RIP relationship: the higher a firm’s KIC, the flatter the DC–RIP curve. Moreover, there is empirical evidence of the shape-flip phenomenon of the DC–RIP curve: when KIC > 1.82, the DC–RIP relationship is no longer an inverted U-shaped but presents as a U-shaped curve.

Research limitations/implications

This study explores the DC–RIP relationship from the perspective of knowledge management, deepens the research scope of digitalization and lays the foundation for subsequent research.

Originality/value

This study provides potential explanations for contradictory views of the effect of DC on innovation in the existing literature by revealing the nonlinear relationship of DC and RIP and the important roles of KA and KIC in that relationship. The new insights into the role of KIC as a threshold for the DC–RIP link provide a direction for firms to control the pace of digital transformation.