Strategic management in the digital era: A systematic literature review and research agenda
Keywords:
Strategic management, digitalization, literature reviewAbstract
Organisations have come a long way in how they build and execute strategy with the advent of digital technologies like artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing and platform ecosystems. Although some literature has focused on digital transformation, innovation, and technology adoption, the implications for strategic management of digitalisation are dispersed across the disciplines and theories. This study systematically reviews the literature on digital technologies from 2010 to 2024 to provide a synthesis of the influence of digital technologies on the main strategic management processes, such as competitive positioning, dynamic capabilities, business model innovation and organizational governance. The analysis is performed in the context of a structured review protocol that sorts existing research into the main thematic clusters, and finds prevailing theories, methods and empirical contexts. A major finding in the review is that classical strategic theory is not well integrated with digital phenomena, that many contexts of the emerging economy are underrepresented, and that only a little emphasis is placed on strategic renewal that occurs over time rather than the short term. The paper suggests a future research agenda highlighting potential avenues of theory development, methodological development and managerial relevance based on these gaps.
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