Competencies Required for Entrepreneurs to Manoeuvre Successfully Through Digital Transformation

Abstract

Digital transformation typically means both game-changing opportunities and risks (Nadkarni and Prügl 2021), forcing entrepreneurs to develop essential competencies to remain competitive in a changing environment (Murawski and Bick 2017). Very few existing academic studies have evaluated and developed competency-based frameworks designed for entrepreneurs (Hayton and Kelley 2006; Mitchelmore and Rowley 2010), or examined entrepreneurial opportunities and implications caused by digital transformation (Berman 2012; Sebastian et al. 2017). Aside from these examples, the domain of entrepreneurship is still relatively under-explored in this context, and so it can be concluded that the topics “competencies required for the digital age” and “entrepreneurs” are yet to be integrated to any great extent by the academic community, even though gaining an in-depth understanding would be benefcial for diferent stakeholders (e.g., entrepreneurs and business schools). To address this gap, we formulate the following research question (RQ): RQ: What are the required competencies an entrepreneur needs to master, in order to face the new challenges of digital transformation successfully? Based on insights taken from a literature review, which we used to prepare interview guidelines, semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2020 with six experts in the feld, who we selected through a convenience sampling approach. Our explorative study demonstrates that the development of basic technical skills and agility is an essential entrepreneurial requirement. Our results furthermore indicate that along with technological and soft competencies, social and emotional skills are crucial for entrepreneurs in the digital age. ... [Aus: Introduction]