Digital innovation in management and business : a comprehensive review, multi-level framework, and future research agenda

Uršič, Dejan (author), Čater, Tomaž (author)

The paper investigates the landscape of digital innovation publications in management and business journals. By integrating bibliometric, topic modeling, and qualitative analyses, we introduce a novel approach to synthesize the foundational, current, and future topics. Analyzing 684 documents, we first identify three foundational topics: digital transformation, digital platform ecosystems, and digital innovation foundations. Second, we reveal ten current topics: digital business model innovation, digital process innovation, digital strategy, digital product innovation, digital capabilities, open innovation, digital platform ecosystems, digital transformation, digital service innovation, and digital innovation adoption. Third, we analyze the theoretical perspectives and foundations that underpin these topics through qualitative interpretation. The paper contributes to digital innovation literature by providing an overarching multi-level framework that links contextual conditions, mechanisms, and outcomes across individual, organizational, and industry levels. Furthermore, it identifies key underlying theories that shape the field and proposes a future research agenda for multidisciplinary theoretical bridging.

• Language: English
• Keywords: management, digitalization, innovations, bibliometric analysis, digital innovation, business, topic modeling, multi-level framework
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 18 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 197, art. 115475
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-169467
• UDC: 005.3
• ISSN on article: 0148-2963
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115475
• COBISS.SI-ID: 237125123
• Publication date in RUL: 29.05.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of business research
• Shortened title: J. bus. res.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0148-2963
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25694208

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: management, digitalizacija, inovacije, bibliometrična analiza

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0128
• Name: Izzivi vključujočega in trajnostnega razvoja v prevladujoči paradigmi ekonomskih in poslovnih znanosti

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-4575
• Name: Investicije kot ključ do izgradnje trajnostnega podjetja: izgradnja teoretičnega modela in multimetodološka empirična analiza