This article introduces the special issue Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the
Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspective. Nine research papers have been selected to reach two
primary research aims: first, to understand how entrepreneurs, cognitively, make strategical
decisions in order to be more competitive in the technology sector; second, to investigate how digital
technologies and ICTs are being used in the context of SMEs and entrepreneurshi

&amp

Caputo A.

Millán A.

Millán J. M.

Pellegrini M.

Sassetti S.

English

International Review of Entrepreneurship, Article #1679, 20(3): pp. 331-336.© 2022, Senate Hall Academic Publishing.                                   Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspective Sara SassettiDepartment of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, ItalyAndrea CaputoDepartment of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Italy & Department of Management, University of Lincoln, UKMassimiliano M. PellegriniManagement and Law Department, Tor Vergata University, Rome, ItalyAna Millán1Department of Financial Economics and Accounting, Pablo de Olavide University, Sevilla, SpainJosé María MillánDepartment of Economics, University of Huelva, SpainAbstract. This article introduces the special issue Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and theEntrepreneurial Cognition Perspective. Nine research papers have been selected to reach twoprimary research aims: first, to understand how entrepreneurs, cognitively, make strategicaldecisions in order to be more competitive in the technology sector; second, to investigate how digitaltechnologies and ICTs are being used in the context of SMEs and entrepreneurship.Keywords: entrepreneurship, ICT use, digitalization, cognition perspective, barriers and drivers.1. IntroductionThe application of digital technologies and ICTs in the context ofentrepreneurship and small-and medium sized enterprises has revolutionizedorganizations and business models around the world (Caputo et al., 2021; Rosinet al., 2020; OECD, 2020). The digital environment provides a competitivelandscape in which taking an entrepreneurial strategic posture may be particularly1. Corresponding author: Ana Millán, Department of Financial Economics and Accounting,Pablo de Olavide University, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Ctra. de Utrera 1, 41013,Sevilla, Spain. Telephone: +34954977969. Email: amillan@upo.es© 2022, Senate Hall Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved332              Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspectivebeneficial to SMEs. Indeed, digital technologies create more variability inentrepreneurial activities and allow SMEs to rapidly and easily enhance theircapabilities and performance to create value (Nambisan, 2017; Millán et al., 2021;Barrientos-Marín et al., 2021; Van Stel et al., 2021). Digital technologies enabledthe creation of new business ventures and digital start-ups, which incorporatenovel technology as a vital component of their business models and operations(Elia et al., 2020). In this sense, digital technologies are enablers ofentrepreneurial activity (Pizzi et al., 2021; Von Briel et al., 2018) and the use ofdigital technologies offers new opportunities to enhance current entrepreneurialgoals by optimizing processes, managerial, and strategic decisions (Ferguson &Henrekson, 2019). ICT use at work can also increase working time flexibility andreduce stress at work of business owners (Block et al., 2022).Moreover, due to Covid-19 entrepreneurs face numerous challenges anduncertainties. Therefore, they had to develop new ways to do business (Ayoko etal., 2021). In this context, digital technologies and ICTs have been confirmed tobe helpful for a prompt and resilient adaptation process, also thanks to theirfacilitating roles in fostering open innovation (Marzi et al., 2023) and coopetitionstrategies (Corbo et al., 2023). Indeed, the use of digital technology and ICTs inthis pandemic time may help entrepreneurs to stay connected and facilitate smartworking situations (Papadopoulos et al., 2020; Salomaa and Caputo, 2021).In the last decades, there was an increasing attention to understand therelationship between digital technologies and entrepreneurship, and a new streamof research was built: the digital entrepreneurship (Ladeira et al., 2019;Nambisan, 2017). However, this research stream is still under development and itis limited in scope in explaining the benefits of applying digital technologies inthe area of entrepreneurship (Ladeira et al., 2019; Nambisan, 2017) but there isthe need to build on (relate to) several important existing theoretical perspectivesand research streams in entrepreneurship, such as the cognitive perspective(Caputo et al., 2022; Sassetti et al., 2018).2. The Entrepreneurial Cognition and the Digital ContextStarting from these theoretical premises, the first main aim of this special issuewas to understand how entrepreneurs, cognitively, make strategical decisions inorder to be more competitive in the technology sector.In this regard, the first paper by Baldacchino and Boffa, using a mixed-methods approach, investigated how intuition and analysis related toentrepreneurs’ decisions to exploit high-tech opportunities. A key finding of thisstudy is that there was a greater amount of analytical than intuitive processingduring high-tech opportunity exploitation decision-making, suggesting thatentrepreneurs engage in more deliberate processes such as interpreting,convergent thinking and mental simulation at this stage, in an attempt to select theInternational Review of Entrepreneurship, Article #1679, 20(3) Special Issue                                333most promising option. Nevertheless, intuition was positively associated, whileanalysis was negatively associated, with the number of opportunities thatparticipants decided they would exploit.The second paper by Piqueras-León and Rialp-Criado aims to enhance theunderstanding of entrepreneurs’ digital capabilities and their decision-makinglogic regarding internationalization within a Born Digital Start-up. A qualitativeand interpretive method has been used for this purpose in a single case setting.Authors demonstrated how the interplay of entrepreneurs’ international vision,prior international experience and international experience acquired through thedeployment of digital technologies relates to a better understanding to recognizeinternational opportunities.The third paper by Ferri, Tron, Colantoni and Savio started from the premisethat the choice to implement risk management instruments is essential forentrepreneurs in the technological industry. In this sense, derivatives are one ofthe main instruments that an entrepreneur can decide to use, since a relevantportion of the revenues of this sector comes from foreign countries, and thisincreases their exposition to the fluctuations of exchange rates. Considering asample of 81 firms operating in the Telecommunication and InformationTechnology industries, the results revealed that the choice to use derivatives doesnot affect firm value in the technology sector in the European market, confirmingthat the impact of derivatives on firms’ values is strictly linked to the specificindustry (technology, airlines, oil & gas producers, etc.) in which they areapplied.3. Barriers and Drivers in the Entrepreneur’s Decision to DigitalizeThe second main aim of this special issue was to understand more in-depth howdigital technologies and ICTs are used in the context of SMEs andentrepreneurship, particularly in response to Covid-19.In this vein, the impact on this digitalization process by SMEs of both generaldeterminants (e.g., country and/or time-specific effects) and more specific factors(e.g., firm and business owner characteristics such as size, age, industry orgender) also deserves research attention. Furthermore, the relationship betweenICTs implementation and some alternative entrepreneurs’ performance measuressuch as export propensity or innovation calls for further investigation.Thus, the fourth paper by Schøtt, Kunday, Boutaleb, Menipaz, Rahman,Bouhaddioui, Pereira and Angoitia-Grijalba explores how, in a business, theintention to adopt digital technology is shaped by early and recent digitalizationand by embeddedness in socio-temporal contexts. To this end, this research usesthe GEM 2021 survey of businesses for Spain and eight non-European countries(Colombia, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Morocco, Sudan, Turkey, and the United ArabEmirates), which allows for exploring differences between advanced and334              Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspectiveemerging societies after the Covid-19 outbreak. This study finds that intention toadopt digital technology is promoted by past digitalization, thus supporting theconception of digitalization as an ongoing process. The paper also identifies thepandemic, despite its damaging disruption, as an external enabler of digitalizationfor pursuing new opportunities. Moreover, this study reveals that non-Europeansocieties have been catching up during the pandemic and suggests that highintention to adopt digital technology may position these countries to forge ahead.The fifth paper by Nazir, Roomi and Khan explores the contextual challengesfaced by SMEs in adopting e-commerce in Pakistan. Using qualitative methods,this study identifies five major challenges: technological, organizational,environmental, national (local) institutional support and entrepreneurialcharacteristics of owner-managers. This study finds that the adoption of e-commerce in Pakistani SMEs is dynamic and mainly driven by the decision of theindividual owner although some external challenges also limit them to fullytransition their operational management system to the technology.The sixth paper by Cowling, Liu and Vorley traces out the causal process bywhich some firms identified an opportunity to invest in ICT, and conditional uponan opportunity being present, making the choice of whether or not to invest in it.Their final element in the causal chain of events is the scale of the total ICTinvestment given the firm had decided to proceed. To this end, the authors use alarge representative investment decision-making survey of UK businesses. Theresearch identifies that firm size is positively associated with identifying an ICTopportunity, actual investment in that opportunity, and investment scale. The keyfinding on investment scale is that firms that are able to secure external equityinvest more in ICT.The seventh paper by Expósito, A. Sanchis-Llopis and J.A. Sanchis-Llopiscontributes to the acknowledgement of the influence of the entrepreneur’s genderon SMEs’ digitalisation strategies in the service and retail sectors. Using a surveyon business competitiveness for Spanish SMEs, the results of this study indicatea higher probability of male entrepreneurs to invest in software and ICTequipment, as compared to women. The paper also shows how entrepreneurialrisk-taking and businesses’ innovation capabilities are important drivers forengaging in these two digitalisation strategies, regardless of the gender of theentrepreneur. Regarding proactiveness, this entrepreneurial trait is found to beespecially important for women, since the positive impact of entrepreneurialproactiveness on the probability to engage in digitalisation strategies is strongerin women-led businesses.The eighth paper by Gómez-Sánchez, Máñez-Castillejo and J.A. Sanchis-Llopis explores the impact of several indicators of ICT on firms’ export decisionsfor Colombian manufacturing. To this end, the authors specify a model thataccounts for sunk costs, firm experience in exporting and the impact of importingon exporting. This study reveals that ICTs have a significant and positive impacton firms’ propensity to export, regardless of the ICT category examined. ThisInternational Review of Entrepreneurship, Article #1679, 20(3) Special Issue                                335work also confirms the existence of persistence on firms’ exports, self-selection,and depreciation of export experience.The final paper by Samsami and Schøtt extends the theoretical frameworkproposed by Schøtt et al. by exploring the relationship between digitalizing andinnovating and, in particular, whether both elements may spiral upward overtime. By using the GEM 2021-2022 survey of businesses for 47 countries, thisstudy reveals how past and especially recent digitalization promote productinnovation and particularly process innovation in a firm. In turn, productinnovation, and especially process innovation are found to promote intention tosoon adopt new digital technology.We would like to thank the authors of the papers of this special issue. We alsowant to thank the reviewers for their insightful comments that contributedsubstantially to the development of these papers. This special issue also hasbenefited from comments from participants at the 2nd EURAM SIGEntrepreneurship Paper Development Workshop (online, 2021) and at theEuropean Academy of Management (EURAM) conference of 2021, track“Entrepreneurial Decision Making and Behavior”, where earlier versions ofsome of the papers of the issue were presented. Finally, we are grateful for thesupport and guidance of the Co-Editors of the International Review ofEntrepreneurship, Andrew Burke and André van Stel.Acknowledgements: This special issue was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Finance andEuropean Funds of the Andalusian Regional Government (Junta de Andalucía-Consejería deEconomía, Hacienda y Fondos Europeos) through Andalusia ERDF 2014-20 OperationalProgramme (Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucía 2014-20) under University of Huelva researchproject UHU-1265299.References:Ayoko, O.B., Caputo, A. and Mendy, J. (2021), “Management research contributions to theCOVID-19: A bibliometric literature review and analysis of the contributions from the Journalof Management & Organization”, Journal of Management & Organization, 27(6): p 1183-1209.Barrientos-Marín, J., Fu, N., Millán, J.M. and Van Stel, A. (2021), “ICT usage at work as a way toreduce the gender earnings gap among European entrepreneurs”. In: Lechman, E. (Ed.),Technology and Women’s Empowerment, p 101-118. New York: Routledge.Block, J., Millán, J.M., Moritz, A. and Ramos-Poyatos, J.D. (2022), “Working hours, working timeflexibility and stress at work of different types of entrepreneurs”, Revue de l’Entrepreneuriat/ Review of Entrepreneurship, 21(Special Issue 2): p 59-100.336              Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition PerspectiveCaputo, A., Pizzi, S., Pellegrini, M.M. and Dabi, M. (2021), “Digitalization and business models:Where are we going? A science map of the field”, Journal of Business Research, 123: p 489-501.Caputo, A., Pellegrini, M.M. and Nikiforou, A. (2022), “Entrepreneurial decision making inacademic spinoffs: A bibliometric map and research agenda”, Studies in Higher Education,47(10): p 2022-2038.Corbo, L., Kraus, S., Vlai, B., Dabi, M., Caputo, A. and Pellegrini, M.M. (2023), “Coopetition andinnovation: A review and research agenda”, Technovation, 122, article 102624.Elia, G., Margherita, A. and Passiante, G. (2020), “Digital entrepreneurship ecosystem: How digitaltechnologies and collective intelligence are reshaping the entrepreneurial process”,Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 150: article 119791.Ferguson, S. and Henrekson, M. (2019), “The long-run performance of born globals in computing:The role of digital platforms”, International Review of Entrepreneurship, 17(3): p 257-280.Ladeira, M.J., Ferreira, F.A., Ferreira, J.J., Fang, W., Falcão, P.F. and Rosa, ÁA. (2019), “Exploringthe determinants of digital entrepreneurship using fuzzy cognitive maps”, InternationalEntrepreneurship and Management Journal, 15(4): p 1077-1101.Marzi, G., Manesh, M.F., Caputo, A., Pellegrini, M.M. and Vlai, B. (2023), “Do or do not.Cognitive configurations affecting open innovation adoption in SMEs”, Technovation, 119:article 102585.Millán, J.M., Lyalkov, S., Burke, A., Millán, A. and Van Stel, A. (2021), “‘Digital divide’ amongEuropean entrepreneurs: Which types benefit most from ICT implementation?”, Journal ofBusiness Research, 125: p 533-547.Nambisan, S. (2017), “Digital entrepreneurship: Toward a digital technology perspective ofentrepreneurship”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6): p 1029-1055.OECD (2020), OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2020, Paris: OECD Publishing.Papadopoulos, T., Baltas, K.N. and Balta, M.E. (2020), “The use of digital technologies by smalland medium enterprises during COVID-19: Implications for theory and practice”,International Journal of Information Management, 55: article 102192.Pizzi, S., Corbo, L. and Caputo, A. (2021), “Fintech and SMEs sustainable business models:Reflections and considerations for a circular economy”, Journal of Cleaner Production, 281:article 125217.Rosin, A.F., Proksch, D., Stubner, S. and Pinkwart, A. (2020), “Digital new ventures: Assessing thebenefits of digitalization in entrepreneurship”, Journal of Small Business Strategy, 30(2): p 59-71.Salomaa, M. and Caputo, A. (2021), “Business as usual? Assessing the impact of the COVID-19pandemic to research, development and innovation (RDI) activities of universities of appliedsciences”, Tertiary Education and Management, 27(4): p 351-366.Sassetti, S., Marzi, G., Cavaliere, V. and Ciappei, C. (2018), “Entrepreneurial cognition and sociallysituated approach: A systematic and bibliometric analysis”, Scientometrics, 116(3): p 1675-1718.Van Stel, A., Barrientos-Marín, J., Caçador-Rodrigues, L., Millán, A. and Millán, J.M. (2021),“Measuring performance differentials across entrepreneurship types”, InternationalEntrepreneurship and Management Journal, forthcoming. First published online 14 July 2021.Von Briel, F., Davidsson, P. and Recker, J. (2018), “Digital technologies as external enablers of newventure creation in the IT hardware sector”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 42(1): p47-69.

Decide to Digitalize! Barriers, Drivers and the Entrepreneurial Cognition Perspective

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