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The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of a competitive action and its impact on the response of rivals in the digital market. Specifically, this paper introduces the concept of action complexity and action variation to delineate the configuration characteristics of each digital competitive action and empirically investigates how these action characteristics further affect rivals’ response speed.

This paper uses structural content analysis methods to code competitive actions based on the news of Chinese online travel agencies (OTAs) from 2010 to 2015. The cox proportional hazards regression models are employed to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that action complexity of the focal firm is negatively associated with rivals’ response speed as it constrains their interpretation (awareness), motivation and capability to respond, while action variation of the focal firm is positively associated with rivals’ response speed as it enhances their attention (awareness) and motivation to respond. Furthermore, the negative relationship between action complexity and response speed is weaker when action variation is high.

Further to advancing competitive dynamics theory, this paper proposes an action-configuration perspective to explore the particular content and quality of each digital competitive action. The discussion of competitive rivalry between OTAs also enriches the application of competitive dynamics in the digital market. Meanwhile, this paper further clarifies the decision-making process of rivalry drawing on the awareness–motivation–capability (AMC) framework.

Prior research highlights the vital role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for innovation in response to environmental conditions. However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the determinants of ICT investments on the innovation activities of firms in relation with their impacts on the industrial and competitive dynamics using large data sets. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors investigate the effects of ICT investments on the industrial and competitive dynamics for a large and representative panel data set. All the industries are included, and lagged effects of ICT investments are studied. The model is tested on a seven-year panel (2008–2014) of 231 Italian industries using two-stage least squares instrumental-variables estimators with industry time and fixed effects.

The results indicate that munificent industries and higher ICT spending are interrelated facts, showing that in sectors with more growth opportunities firms invest more in ICT and this leads to higher industry concentration, greater profit dispersion and higher competitive turbulence in the sector. Also, the paper shows that SMEs can rarely take advantage of their ICT-based innovation to start high-growth phenomena.

The results suggest that ICT-based innovation may create competitive advantages that are hard to sustain over the long-term raising important implications for managers involved in ICT-enabled innovations and policy-makers involved in building programs to foster innovation.

Against the backdrop of today’s digital transformation, the paper enriches our understanding on the disruptive effects exerted by the digitalization of the innovation process and provides a base to continue the investigation of industrial changes and competitive dynamics.

This study aims to explore the mediating effect of digital options on the relationship between emerging information technology investments (ITIs) and firm performance (FP). In particular, it analyses the performance impacts of investments in five emerging technologies of IT or non-IT firms.

Secondary data are collected from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2018. The authors propose an econometric model focusing on the impact of ITIs on a firm’s market value and profit. A propensity score matching model is applied to control endogeneity.

The ITIs’ effect on FP is found to be completely mediated by digital options, and the reach of digital options plays a more positive role in the relationship between ITIs and Tobin’s Q, whereas the richness of digital options is stronger between ITIs and return on net assets (ROE). The group study shows that the impact of process technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things has a more profound impact on Tobin’s Q, and the knowledge technologies represented by artificial intelligence, blockchain and big data strongly affect ROE. In addition, the positive relationship between ITIs and FP is unrelated to IT/non-IT firms.

First, the data are based on 219 publicly announced emerging ITIs in China and thus may not be generalizable to other cultural/national contexts. Second, there is a lack of a large sample data set of emerging ITI information in China, and the duration of this study is constrained to the relatively short rise of emerging technologies.

This study provides firm decision-makers with practical implications. The results imply that the effect of ITIs on FP depends on digital options, so both IT firms (e.g., Big Tech giants) and non-IT firms (e.g., incumbents) should discover how to balance firm value and profit in their management of emerging technology investment projects with digital options thinking.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to investigate the relationship between ITIs and FP from the perspective of digital options, exploring five emerging technologies and considering firm life, size, and state ownership in a sample of Chinese listed firms.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Digital technology is crucial to improving a firm’s core competitiveness. However, the existing research on the relationship therein shows heterogeneity. Using digital technology can enhance competitive advantage, which is crucial for enterprises and scholars. Thus, based on the digital technology affordance theory, this study explores the relationship between digital technology affordance and digital competitive advantage.

Survey data were collected from 509 large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in China, and multiple regression and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypotheses. Specifically, we discuss the mediating role of digital business capability and the moderating role of organisational legitimacy.

Editability, association and visibility positively affect digital competitive advantage, and their coordination is strong. Further, they can help enterprises gain a competitive advantage through the mediating role of digital business capability (digital strategy, digital integration and regulation). However, the influence effect and action path differ per in different dimensions. Organisational legitimacy positively moderates the mediating effect of digital integration and regulation, and there is a moderated mediating effect. However, the moderating effect on the mediating effect of digital strategy is not significant.

Existing studies neglect the relationship between the coordination of digital technology functions and digital competitive advantage. This study provides a new theoretical explanation for an in-depth understanding of these issues. These findings promote the development of innovation theory and provide valuable insights for guiding the application of digital technology in enterprises.

This study proposed the integrative model of dynamic dominant logic (DL) with exploitation (EP) and exploration (ER) as a pattern of actions in endeavoring firm performance (FP). This study also intended to explain the multiple patterns of DL in creating technical and evolutionary fitness simultaneously.

This study used a cross-sectional quantitative analysis of the Indonesian commercial banking population facing digital transformation and was analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling through parceling.

The model confirmed that DL positively affects EP and ER. It also revealed that DL indirectly impacts FP through EP, indicating changes in the traditional banking business through the strong acceptance of “new realities” in adapting to the rapid growth of technology. Hence, this study discovered that during the recent banking digital transformation, the beneficial inertia of the technical pattern of action might lose effectiveness in creating superior performance.

DL is vital in locking short-term performance while maintaining long-term performance opportunities through EP and ER to promote digital transformation. Accordingly, it induced banks to adopt new technology for value creation and fortifying competitive advantage.

This study provided a theory about how DL links the firm's decision-making process by promoting multiple patterns of action in achieving technical and evolutionary fitness. It highlighted the DL as a resource conceptualization that promotes resource development through EP and ER as microfoundation of dynamic capabilities during the tension of institutionalization and digital transformation.

This study examines the impact of digital corporate social responsibility (CSR) on social entrepreneurship, organizational resilience and competitive intelligence during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. It also examines the impact of competitive intelligence on social entrepreneurship and organizational resilience.

Data were collected from telecommunication companies in Jordan with a sample of 223 managers, using Smart-PLS for analysis and testing the research model and hypotheses.

The results reveal a significant impact of digital CSR on social entrepreneurship. They show that digital CSR significantly impacts organizational resilience. The findings also indicate a significant role of digital CSR in competitive intelligence. This study shows that social entrepreneurship significantly impacts organizational resilience. The results also confirm the impact of competitive intelligence on social entrepreneurship. Finally, the results confirm that competitive intelligence significantly impacts organizational resilience.

This study provides valuable academic and practical insights into digital CSR practices, social entrepreneurship and how to support organizational resilience during crises.

This paper aims to discuss the impact of institutional pressures on the selection of the performance indicators in 83 balanced scorecards (BSC) used in French real estate companies. The author studied the way in which two factors that are representative of institutional pressures in the real estate sector – namely, “ecology” and “digital innovation” – were incorporated into the BSC causal chains.

The author’s methodology is that of action research. To analyze the balance of indicators between short and long term, the author classified the companies according to their strategic acuity, i.e. their ability to balance an organizational vision (near vision) and an environmental one (distance vision) when choosing their performance indicators. This resulted in a company classification with three categories: emmetropic, hypermetropic and slightly myopic.

This research enabled to observe that the selected ecological indicators in BSCs derive mainly from coercive institutional pressure. Hence, in companies with fewer legal requirements in ecological matters, the selected ecological indicators are included in the BSC causal chain, in that they are used as a commercial argument with a view to improving financial performance. These results are similar to the reactionary and reputational perspectives of the sustainability business case. With regard to the incorporation of digital innovation indicators into BSCs, the author found that the companies that have the most digital innovation indicators are those that mobilize the most ecological indicators. Digital innovation indicators are part of the companies’ internal process perspective and are linked to organizational learning indicators. These results are similar to the responsible and collaborative perspectives of the sustainability business case. The author also found that the companies incorporate digital indicators into their BSCs by institutional mimicry insofar as the selected indicators are not always consistent with a strategic rationale but are chosen by copying what is done in other companies.

The author’s research has two main limitations related to the methodology used. On the one hand, the mobilization of part-time management students to have access to companies can influence the emergence of mimetic isomorphisms. Indeed, these students follow the same training and advise the companies that welcome them according to the training they have followed. On the other hand, the author’s research stops at the development of the BSC. The author does not study the impacts or changes that occurred after the implementation of the tool. This could be the subject of future research on the appropriation and use of the BSC by the company’s actors and their impact on the optimization of global performance measurement system.

This study may be of interest to researchers and managers who wish to reconcile sustainable development and digital innovation in global performance management. It analyzes the impact of institutional pressures on the performance measurement system. It offers insights on how to integrate ecological indicators and digital innovation indicators into the BSC causal chains. It identifies the tensions that managers may face. It reports on practices adopted in the field by managers in action.

This paper reveals the feasibility of measuring global performance integrating ecology and digital innovation. It responds to a preoccupation of recent years in academic research on how to reconcile corporate social responsibility and technological innovation. It shows that the companies that have the most digital innovation indicators are those that mobilize the most ecological indicators. However, it highlights the difficulties encountered by managers in the field when faced with institutional pressures.

The author’s reflection is in line with the literature of recent years that reconciles sustainable development and innovation. The author studied how “ecology” and “digital innovation” are incorporated into the BSC causal chains. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first time this type of study has been conducted in the literature.

This paper aims to introduce and test a model of shaping strategic agility based on dynamic capabilities such as information technology (IT) competencies, entrepreneurial alertness and acuity market to improve firms’ competitive activity.

A study based on a quantitative approach has been designed. Data have been collected through closed questionnaires from a sample of firms. The study has been conducted in the electronics industry in Italy based on the dynamism of the setting. Through SPSS-AMOS application, path analysis has been performed to conduct a first assessment of the theoretical model.

The dimensions of strategic agility are relevant capabilities for improving competitive activity. Furthermore, increasing strategic agility in the three dimensions (customer, operational and partnering) depends on the ability to improve other dynamic capabilities of the organization, including IT competency, systematic insight and strategic foresight. Finally, strategic agility results to be the only variable able to leverage the firm’s competitive activity.

The study presents some limitations linked to the response rate and the ability to conduct further analysis. However, it highlights the main dimensions that managers and entrepreneurs should develop to improve the competitive activities of the firm.

The paper addresses practitioners’ need to identify the main variable to leverage in order to increase firms’ competitivity.

The results of the study offer the opportunity for new reflections when designing business executives’ training programs and defining recruitment pathways.

This is the first study that investigates strategic agility building in a turbulent environment in the Italian setting.