Digital or not – The future of entrepreneurship and innovation: Introduction to the special issue

Digitization is arguably currently the single most important force in entrepreneurship and innovation. In this special issue editorial, we shed light on the current state of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation research to take stock of past research and identify opportunities for the future. The 11 papers in this special issue present a decisive step in extending the current research by either exploring the context of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation, by operationalizing digital technologies as moderators or mediators, or by modeling the particularities of the role of digital technologies as independent or dependent variables. This editorial suggests paths for future research and specifically calls for more joint consideration of digital entrepreneurship and digital innovation along with specific theory building and testing that incorporates the specificities of digitization. An important aspect in that process is extending the understanding of the dark side of digitization.