Published Paper Details:

Digital technologies contribute to the transformation of large parts of our economy and society. The impact of digital innovation on entrepreneurship and its outcomes within diverse sociopolitical contexts. Results show that improved innovation output scores and the ability to absorb innovative models are associated with higher GDP growth rates. Technological changes account for 35-40% of the dynamics, while regional factors account for 40%. Internet usage has led to decreased operational costs, increased sales, and better customer interaction for 88% of companies, enabling 83% to expand their markets and 78% to engage more effectively with suppliers. Digitalization fosters entrepreneurship expansion into new markets, creating a positive feedback loop between the two variables. Additionally, the study found that government roles have a more significant influence on entrepreneurship sustainability compared to electronic readiness. Digital technologies have been shown to enhance firm productivity, particularly in manufacturing and intensive industries. There is no doubt that digital technologies are spawning ongoing innovation across most if not all sectors of the economy and society. In this essay, we take stock of the characteristics of digital technologies that give rise to this new reality and introduce the papers in this special issue. In addition, we also highlight the unprecedent opportunities that digital innovation provides to study innovation processes more generally. Overall, we conclude that the speed, observability, and relative ease in investigating relationships between multiple analytical levels, mean that digital innovation is both a 'model of' that also provides a 'model for' the study of innovation processes more broadly in non-digital and hybrid contexts.