Guest editorial: New technologies and entrepreneurship: exploring entrepreneurial behavior in the digital transformation era

Digital transformation offers both intriguing challenges and new opportunities for entrepreneurs (Cohen et al., 2017; Li et al., 2018; Troise et al., 2022a). New technologies are spreading throughout the world, contributing to the rapid development and changes in new industries (Aydalot and Keeble, 2018). Among those new, global technologies are artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, Internet of things (IoT), big data, digital platforms, social media, mobile applications (i.e. apps), cloud computing, blockchain and more (as the Fintech ones, such as ICOs and crowdfunding) (Troise et al., 2022a), the adoptions of which are expected to become increasingly widespread over the next few years. Digital transformation has had a large-scale impact (Andriole, 2017), and its development favors the creation and diffusion of several new types of entrepreneurships (Oukil, 2011). For example, recent advances in digital technologies have played a key role in growing a new, digital-based entrepreneurship and the development of related business models (Kraus et al., 2019; Nambisan, 2017). These technologies are having a disruptive impact on entrepreneurship, changing traditional patterns and helping discover new frontiers for entrepreneurs to explore (Broomé and Ohlsson, 2018). A growing number of entrepreneurs are leveraging online social networks to create relationships and exchange knowledge (Scarmozzino et al., 2017). Some studies have investigated the impact of social media technologies on company performance or entrepreneurial opportunities (Ahmad et al., 2019; Troise et al., 2022b) and the importance of the entrepreneurial team (Ben-Hafaïedh et al., 2022; Santos et al., 2019). Digital platforms are among the modern technologies that entrepreneurs have exploited (Srinivasan and Venkatraman, 2018; Troise and Tani, 2021; Troise et al., 2021; Yablonsky, 2018); they can help develop new business ideas, and many have often focused their business models around the characteristics of the platforms themselves. Further, entrepreneurs also benefit from the competitiveness (especially in terms of cost reduction) related to the emergence of a new technology (Chen and Tian, 2022; Fossen and Sorgner, 2021). Despite existing research on new technologies in several fields, such as consumer behavior and innovation (Dominici et al., 2016), few studies specifically explore how they are used by entrepreneurs in developing new businesses (Troise et al., 2022b). In entrepreneurship studies, significant gaps remain regarding how these technologies will impact the future of entrepreneurship. In this special issue, we aim to explore the new entrepreneurial behaviors developed in the digital transformation era. The accompanying technologies influence entrepreneurs and their ventures and significantly affect the entrepreneurial decision-making process. The extant literature focused on the relationship between entrepreneurship and new technologies is still in its infancy and fragmented, hence this domain remains largely undeveloped (Olanrewaju et al., 2020; Troise et al., 2021). Thus, further study is needed to better understand this relationship, along with the primary factors and entrepreneurial behaviors in the current digital scenario. The primary purpose of this editorial is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurship and new technologies by proposing a conceptual model (see Figure 1). We aim to add knowledge to the existing literature by shedding light on the strategic potential of new technologies for entrepreneurship. We are specifically interested in contributing to this emerging field by exploring the opportunities for entrepreneurs – deriving from new technologies – to help them face challenges and to navigate environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) (Troise et al., 2022a). The continuous innovation process that is intrinsic to new digital technology-related advancements creates new scenarios and highlights the need for established and prospective entrepreneurs to obtain and maintain valuable competences related to these new technologies. The ever-changing nature of this new technological context has created significant uncertainty around the entrepreneurial process in a two-fold manner: (1) new technologies may make existing ones obsolete, thereby reducing the period in which companies can exploit them to gain a competitive advantage; and (2) new technologies may drive some players to disrupt the existing context, changing it in an unforeseen manner and creating new competitive spaces for addressing users' needs (Christensen, 1997). Hence, when entrepreneurs cannot correctly gauge the changes made in this context, the perceived uncertainty makes new ventures less manageable and forces the competitive advantage out of reach. Concurrently, this new context may prove useful. Nambisan (2017) underlines that new digital technologies have unique characteristics and are crucial to the improvement of entrepreneurial processes and their outcomes – particularly through the involvement of a broader set of stakeholders. New, widespread digital platforms – even with a different, more entrepreneurial adoption of social media technologies – may help the various actors in the new technological context become more embedded in an effective network of relationships that proves useful to access the needed competences to create effective innovations and leverage the new technology. These technology-related innovations may represent enablers of entrepreneurial opportunities, given their potential to reduce traditional barriers (e.g. between invention and the creation of a new venture) (Aldrich, 2014; Fischer and Reuber, 2011; Steininger, 2019). Recently, Troise et al. (2022b) showed that social media use has a strong and positive impact on entrepreneurial opportunities in terms of opportunity discovery, creation, recognition and resource mobilization. Further, digital technologies and the platform economy together help bridge differences among cultures, creating shared sets of values and perspectives that can foster the creation of stable stakeholder networks while also helping new companies achieve improved competitive standings, thus increasing their chances at success. By contrast, new technologies may increase the environmental uncertainty perceived by entrepreneurs (Chen and Tian, 2022), thus hindering their propensity to create new ventures or change existing ones. However, when adopted, these new technologies may help entrepreneurs improve their knowledge set and may therefore improve their chances of developing an entrepreneurial process in which opportunities are transformed into value-creating economic activities. In these cases, the technologies may prove fruitful in reducing the context uncertainty (Chalmers et al., 2021). On the one hand, new technologies represent a source of uncertainty (McMullen and Shepherd, 2006); however, on the other hand, they can spur the entrepreneur to capture new opportunities before the incumbent companies (Obschonka and Audretsch, 2020; Townsend et al., 2018). These technological advancements are changing the entrepreneurial scenario. It is essential for ventures to nurture a digital transformation culture oriented toward fostering continuous transformation. New technologies and their developments are creating many new opportunities for entrepreneurs to increase their capability to manage new business models and improve their companies' performances, leverage and competitiveness (Fossen and Sorgner, 2021). Further, digital capabilities, when combined with other competences (e.g. new translation services that leverage the language competences of external contractors with AI to provide a better and faster service to their clients such as the case of the firm “Translated” that has been able to create a service for 194 languages in 40 specialization areas used by other companies such as Google.inc, IBM and organizations like the European Union and the World health Organization), can be decisive factors in guiding acceptance by entrepreneurs. It is relevant to examine the factors that aid entrepreneurs in embracing new technologies and using them creatively and openly as the basis of their ventures. We suggest that the dynamics of entrepreneurial ventures are highly influenced by new technologies, and it is crucial to understand their evolution in the context of digital transformation. Hence, it is critical to explore entrepreneurs' daily evolutions and activities to shed light on the effects of adopting these new technologies. As a result of this editorial, we expect to provide readers with additional knowledge related to new technologies in the domain of entrepreneurship and increase understanding of their key role for the future of entrepreneurial ventures. Entrepreneurs may exploit new opportunities from new technologies and increase value for their ventures and primary stakeholders leveraging their competences in the search for a competitive advantage. This editorial represents an initial contribution to what promises to be an important and fruitful phenomenon in the study of new ventures and their development, and we suggest that new technologies play a key role in entrepreneurship. These technologies influence entrepreneurial behaviors and significantly affect the entrepreneurial decision-making process. Further, we suggest that a wide variety of new technologies may affect entrepreneurial opportunities differently. Moreover, it is important to understand the evolution of new technologies, the factors that guide the entrepreneurial process and the effects of new technologies on the management of entrepreneurial ventures.