Digital leadership: A new management and entrepreneurship development roadmap

In the last decade, Digital Transformation (DT) has attracted an increasing academic and practitioner interest due to its unprecedented impact on most industries and aspects of human life (e.g. Chatterjee et al, 2023; Hanelt et al., 2021; Ramesh and Delen, 2021; Lanzolla et al., 2020; Saarikko, Westergren and Blomquist, 2020). Greater adoption of digital technology is increasingly crucial for the strategic renewal of organizations (van Zeebroeck et al., 2021) and the creation of new organizations as well. However, realizing a DT is not just a matter of technology implementation. The rise of a new managerial archetype and entrepreneurial opportunities amplifies the need to build new skills, attitudes and capabilities into business leaders (Mele et al., 2023; Schlegel and Kraus, 2023; Schneider et al., 2023; Ellström et al., 2021). The workforce and human capital impact of DT is a major theme to address. In particular, a new breed of digital leaders is today required to create socio-economic value by leveraging digital-driven innovation and by creating exponential organisations able to scale quickly and lead industries and markets (Tigre et al., 2023; Bresciani et al., 2021; Elia, Margherita, Ciavolino, Moustaghfir, 2021; Elia, Margherita and Passiante, 2020; Kane et al., 2019). Entailing a disruption of organizational structures as well, processes, business strategy, and DT poses considerable challenges in terms of competencies needed to exploit the advantages of technologies for business renewal (Bughin et al., 2021; Jackson and DunnJensen, 2021; Bharadwaj et al., 2013). Scholars and practitioners are today increasingly interested in digital transformation leadership. However, the extant literature is fragmented and we lack knowledge of competencies required by business leaders to facilitate digital transformation (Müller, Konzag, Nielsen, Sandholt, 2024). In such view, it is thus crucial today to contribute by bringing together thought leaders and scholars providing complementary views on digital leadership and the deriving implications in terms of managerial and entrepreneurial skills and attitudes required to be successful in the current business scenario.