Today, entrepreneurs and companies are facing environments characterized by increasing levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) (Millar et al., 2018). They must therefore try to adapt as quickly as possible to potential and rapid changes in the environment and the market. Different strategies, knowledge and technologies are needed to effectively manage businesses in these scenarios (Bargoni et al., 2023a, Bresciani et al., 2024; Elia et al., 2021; Troise et al., 2022a). In particular, new and digital technologies reveal a high potential in enabling organizations and entrepreneurs to better adapt to changing external conditions as well as to face recurrent events such as epidemics and pandemics (Ghobadian et al., 2022). Moreover, new technologies have changed the way entrepreneurs make decisions and communicate with each other (Bargoni et al. 2023).
Digital transformational challenges in the current global scenario led companies to increase their attitude to proactively adopt and leverage new digital technologies (Bresciani et al., 2021; Schiuma et al., 2021). At the same time, companies need to manage and exploit several types of knowledge and capabilities to drive this transformation (Troise, 2022; Troise et al., 2022a). Digital transformation is not just about companies, but also induces key changes for entrepreneurs’ practices and business models (Scarmozzino et al., 2017; Corvello et al., 2024). It, in fact, influences the activities of entrepreneurs by providing new support tools (Secundo et al., 2020; Corvello et al., 2021).
The spread of new enabling technologies offers both intriguing challenges and new opportunities for these days’ entrepreneurs (Cohen et al, 2017; Li et al., 2018), as well as it is influencing the rise of new ventures as well as the behaviors of entrepreneurs (Andriole, 2017). In this vein, for example, digital technologies affect the development of a new ‘digital-based’ entrepreneurship (Nambisan, 2017; Srinivasan & Venkatraman, 2018; Kraus et al., 2019) and – in general – new technologies help entrepreneurs to disclose new frontiers as well as to increase both their awareness (in particular if how and to what extent they want to become self-employed) or their opportunities to collaborate with other (external) players (Broomé & Ohlsson, 2018). Similarly, new technologies can influence and explain the development of business models and business model innovation (Troise et al., 2023b). From another point of view, entrepreneurs can face technological failures which, in turn, can represent useful learning opportunities to develop new competencies or capabilities and adopt new strategies (Corvello et al., 2024). At the same time, also the exploration of the interplay between entrepreneurial ventures, technological advancements, and ecosystems of innovation represents a relevant topic to examine as it is shaping the next wave of start-up growth, with profound implications for business, society, and the environment.
Among the enabling technologies there are the artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, IoT, big data, digital platforms (e.g. crowdfunding platforms), mobile applications (i.e. apps), social media, cloud computing, blockchain, and more (as the Fintech ones) (Troise et al., 2021a, 2021b). Digital platforms, to cite an emerging example, offer opportunities for entrepreneurs and their ventures to enable the so-called transformational entrepreneurship (Jones et al., 2023).
Understanding the role of these technologies for entrepreneurial ventures to deal with VUCA environments – or to pandemics/epidemics in general – and to trigger the entrepreneurial processes is crucial for entrepreneurs. New technologies, in fact, could trigger a new venture creation process (such as the rise of new innovative start-ups) and could be enablers of entrepreneurial opportunities (Troise et al., 2021a). These technologies can have intriguing effects for the entrepreneurial decision making process for a wide range of entrepreneurs, including academic entrepreneurs (Troise et al., 2023a) and entrepreneurial teams (Troise et al, 2024). In sum, new technologies have the potential to help entrepreneurs in the various stages of their activities (since the idea development to the growth performance of established ventures) and to navigate VUCA environments.
Despite the increased number of studies on the new technologies in several fields, there is still only a few studies specifically focused on their role in entrepreneurship and their real added value for entrepreneurs (Troise et al. 2022b). In particular, little is known on how they foster entrepreneurship and new entrepreneurial opportunities or are used by entrepreneurs to build enduring businesses. In entrepreneurship studies, in fact, there are still some gaps on how these technologies will impact the future of entrepreneurship. Hence, there is an ongoing call for more research contributing to shed some light on various issues such as understanding the future of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneurs “new behaviors”, with a particular focus on their motivations and their decision-making processes, the enabling effect of new technologies and how (future or current) entrepreneurs embrace digital transformation.
In this track we aim to explore the ‘new entrepreneurial journeys’ developed in the digital transformation era and how entrepreneurs leverage new technologies and new knowledge in the current digital age. New technologies hold potential to increase in importance for business of the future and offer entrepreneurs opportunity by more quickly adopting technologies to take advance of an uncertain business context and by accessing important resources (e.g., data, feedback/input, funding, knowledge, networks) from a wide audience in a cost-efficient manner. In short, entrepreneurs’ use of new technologies to create, develop, manage, and maintain new ventures is likely to continue to increase in the future (Dwivedi et al., 2020; Shankar, 2020; Upadhyay et al., 2021). This and the embryonic stage of the literature mean research on the connection between new technologies and entrepreneurship in the digital transformation era is needed. This track tries to meet this need by enhancing the scholarly conversation and our collective understanding of the relationships between new technologies and entrepreneurship through research that examines the antecedents, consequences, development, processes, and uses of new technologies in the entrepreneurship domain

Ciro Troise, University of Turin, Italy
Gabriella Esposito, University of Turin, Italy
Mark Anthony Camilleri, University of Malta, Malta
Stefano Bresciani, University of Turin, Italy
Abby Ghobadian, University of Reading, United Kingdom