Paving the way for incumbents' digital transformation. A review and research agenda

Anna Bastone, Luigi Mosca, Christopher Tucci and Sai Lan ()
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Anna Bastone: Parthenope University of Naples (Italy, Naples)
Sai Lan: EM - EMLyon Business School

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Abstract: Digital transformation is reshaping the competitive landscape by forcing incumbent firms to rethink their strategies, organizational structures, and business models. While a substantial body of literature has explored digital transformation in specific sectors, focusing on various factors and organizational mechanisms, there remains a lack of a comprehensive and cohesive understanding of how incumbent firms actively lead or respond to these transformations. As a result, the concept remains somewhat fragmented and underdeveloped. This review addresses this gap by conducting a systematic review of 68 peer-reviewed articles across five major academic domains: entrepreneurship, general management, innovation, organization studies, and strategy. Our review identifies pathways of leading versus responding to digital transformation as well as the internal and external consequences and antecedents that enable or constrain digital transformation. We also offer a research agenda aimed at deepening our theoretical and managerial understanding of how incumbent firms navigate digital transformation , providing novel directions for future studies.

Keywords: organizationalstructure; Business models; digital transformation; incumbent; strategy; responding; leading; literature review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pay and nep-sbm
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Published in European Management Review, In press, pp.17. ⟨10.1111/emre.70038⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05489666

DOI: 10.1111/emre.70038

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