Guest editorial: Introduction to the special issue on digital economy and management

Yongjian Li, Dahui Li

Nankai Business Review International

ISSN: 2040-8749

Article publication date: 16 March 2023

Issue publication date: 16 March 2023

283

Citation

Li, Y. and Li, D. (2023), "Guest editorial: Introduction to the special issue on digital economy and management", Nankai Business Review International, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1108/NBRI-03-2023-106

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited


Digital technologies, such as big data, Internet of Things, blockchain, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, are profound in changing aspects of society, including the business world. The digital economy presents immense opportunities for modern management, with the potential to have enormous impacts on both research and real life. For example, Louis Vuitton, a luxury fashion brand, uses social media analytics in its revenue management. A number of famous worldwide brands conduct live-streams and real-time fashion shows online in their marketing and advertisement campaigns. Furthermore, significant market transformation has been accomplished by leading E-commerce platforms such Amazon and eBay, through their innovative and highly scalable platforms and product recommender systems. As another new commercial mode, the sharing economy, such as Airbnb, Instacart and Uber, is always operated on the basis of the E-commerce platform and digital technologies. Thus, the applications of the digital economy and technologies are widely advocated and explored in manufacturing and services operations.

From the perspective of academic research, the intersection of digital technologies and business models provides ample research opportunities. However, the extant research on the proper appliance of these digital technologies in the management of manufacturing and service industries is still relatively limited. Moreover, how much these digital technologies and the digital economy actually change the commercial modes, improve the management efficiency and capability of enterprises, as well as whether workers, consumers and other stakeholders are also benefited, remain under-explored.

This issue is all about managerial decision making in the era of digital economy, i.e. how managers make strategic decisions and how these decisions can be improved via various emerging digital technologies. The overall mission of this Special issue is to explore some new management problems in the new digital era to management practitioners and academics.

In terms of specificity and detail, the papers in this special issue represent some recent advances in our exploration of critical issues in digital economy and management. First, the readers will find a review article (Mina and Mohammad, 2023) that summarizes the basic bibliometric results for digital transformation strategy (DTS), and it focuses on DTS performance analysis and its science mapping during the past 10 years.

Second, this issue contains three qualitative study papers, which use inductive methodological approach, case study method and grounded theoretical research method, respectively. Based on the literature review of digital transformation implementation, Houda and Hicham (2023) propose a framework linking DTS and business model innovation. He et al. (2023) discuss the behavior of binary learning based on network structure and network impact on efficiency and innovative platform innovation based on an exploratory longitudinal case study and analyzed the realization of the platform innovation path. Wang et al. (2023) use grounded theoretical research method to explore the motivation, action and results of interpersonal conflict between successor and top management team in family business.

Third, this issue also contains four quantitative study papers, which use empirical and experimental research methods. Shen et al. (2023) analyze the psychological mechanism between HCI and consumer well-being in the online retail environment based on data collection of 476 samples of online shoppers through the online survey method. Zheng and Li (2023) conduct six different experiments to examine whether AR usage leads to adverse effects on consumers’ purchase intention and explain the mechanism of its dark side. Xu et al. (2023) use three experiments to examine the impact of an AR-based product display on consumers’ evaluation of historically cultural and creative products. Wang et al. (2023) use four experiments with between-subjects designs to investigate whether the image of AI products (facilitators vs substitutes) will affect consumer evaluation in specific consumption and service scenarios.

We hope that this issue will help to attract more academic scholars to pay attention to this new research area of the management issues in the digital era. And Nankai Business Review International will continue to attract and publish excellent scientific studies of how managers currently make decisions in the new commercial practice and technology environment.

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