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This paper sheds light on the factors facilitating the digital transformation (DT) of companies, examining the empirical evidence according to a new and original dual lens: the internal and external marketing management perspective.

Through an explorative research design based on semi-structured interviews, we investigate the perceptions of some managers involved in managing the DT of their own companies.

The findings, organized from an internal and external marketing perspective, show how DT requires efforts in nurturing: (1) its organizational and cultural nature; (2) new managerial skills and e-leadership. These factors activate DT as an accelerator of (3) production processes and service provision and (4) competitive strategies.

Our findings underscore critical practical implications for organizations embarking on a DT journey. Firstly, managers should prioritize creating a culture that encourages employees to embrace change and technology. Secondly, recognizing the importance of new managerial skills and e-leadership, managers need to invest in developing the expertise to effectively lead DT efforts. The related skills encompass digital literacy, change management and the ability to inspire and guide teams through the complexities of a DT.

This paper suggests that organizations should holistically approach DT, focusing on culture, leadership and strategic deployment of digital tools. The proposed dual lens offers a valuable and simple answer for academics and practitioners to effectively frame the internal dynamics and external factors shaping DT.

The purpose of this study is to examine the ideals informing the social strategy of Marzotto, an Italian family business in the textile industry, during the rise and fall of the fascist regime and to compare it with the main concepts of social responsibility theory that developed from the 1950s onwards. Because Italy at that time was a family-based economy, subject to a dictatorial government, it offers an interesting context of investigation that is similar to various contemporary emerging countries.

Using a company’s public social report and various published histories, the historical case study of this Italian family business and its pioneering social strategy is reconstructed. Through the identification of the social practices and the ideals underlying the strategy, the analysis finds similarities and differences with the traditional concepts from social responsibility literature.

The study finds that Marzotto’s social strategy traces some dimensions of social responsibility theory for it was a voluntary and discretional act by the business owner; it was based on the necessary balance between economic and social aims; and it was focusing only on social issues. Instead, the “social” spectrum is found to have a different meaning in the Marzotto strategy with respect to the “social” in the traditional theory because it was limited to a local level and limited groups of stakeholders.

By showing the relevant role of business-owners in social responsibility awareness, this study has implications for contemporary practice. It suggests that the educating business-owners about social responsibility and the development of bottom-up rather than top-down social initiatives will be crucial in contemporary similar contexts. The results also open to new research opportunities on corporate social responsibility in the past to explain contemporary differences among its implementation in different countries.

The research brings awareness to social responsibility in the past in a context other than traditional Western countries and to its differences and similarities with the established social responsibility framework. It is the first study on past social practices that makes use of primary sources to support the analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the existing knowledge system of lean supply chain management (LSCM), i.e. by using main path analysis, and the authors extract the main development track of LSCM. It is advantageous for relevant scholars to deepen their understanding of this academic field from a bibliometrics view to grasp the future directions better.

Structuring a citation network with the processed data set containing 866 papers and relevant information collected from Web of Science (WoS). Conducting review analyses aiming at the main paths that are extracted from the above citation network.

There are two different evolution paths in LSCM field, i.e. improving corporate sustainability performance through combining lean and green practices, and seeking the balance between lean and agility to structure leagile supply chain for specific industries. LSCM research studies mainly focus on five aspects: (1) establishment and development of LSCM theory; (2) structuration of lean supply chain; (3) research studies of the relationship between LSCM and corporate performance; (4) supply chain evaluation system; and (5) review and vista of LSCM field. The intersection of two knowledge evolute routes would be Industry 4.0, which is an integrated theory system combining lean, agility, green and other supply chain thinking.

The data set collected from WoS cannot contain all the research studies about LSCM is the main research limitation. Sustainability, as represented by environmental performance, will continue to be a major pursuit of this field. Integrating LSCM in Industry 4.0 will be the next hotspot in LSCM field.

Providing the main research contents and common methods of LSCM field. It is conducive to deepening the understanding of relevant practitioners and scholars to LSCM field from a dynamic perspective.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time to reveal the knowledge diffuse trajectories of LSCM under different view with main path analysis. This study is unique that it provides a new view to understand the field of LSCM.