Entrepreneurial Processes in the Era of Digital Transformation

The book deals with the issue of entrepreneurial processes in the era of digital transformation, which is generating profound changes in the business environment, blurring industry boundaries, and creating unprecedented threats and opportunities for firms.

The phenomenon of digital transformation is simultaneously or alternatively observed from three different research perspectives:

• The context in which entrepreneurial processes take place and its impact on them;
• The impact of digitalization on the initial phase of entrepreneurial processes;
• The profiles and the roles of individuals in entrepreneurial processes (considering the team dynamics as well);
• The growth path addressed to carry out entrepreneurial processes.

Dr. Diego Matricano is Associate Professor of Startup and Innovation at the Università degli Studi della Campania "L. Vanvitelli", Capua, Italy, where since 2016 he has been teaching "Strategies for International Markets" and "Open Innovation and Digital Economy". He has studied at the Jönköping International Business School, Sweden, and was a visiting scholar at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on entrepreneurship, innovation, start-ups and technology transfer. His articles, which deal principally with entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial opportunities, SMEs and innovation networks, have appeared in distinguished scientific journals. He has authored monographs with Italian and international publishing houses and contributed chapters to books published by national and international publishers. He is an experienced track chair focused on entrepreneurship both at the European Academy of Management (EURAM) international conference and at Sinergie-SIMA Italian conference.

Dr. Laura Castaldi is an Assistant Professor of Business Economics and Management at the Department of Economics of University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. She received her PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the Second University of Naples. She was a Visiting Scholar in 2004 and Visiting Research Scholar in 2015 at the Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center, The Wharton School. She currently teaches Innovation Management and coordinates the technology transfer activities at the Department of Economics, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. Her main research areas are knowledge management, digital transformation, entrepreneurship and firm creation, entrepreneurship education, inter-organizational collaborations, and servitization.

Dr. William E. Jackson III is Professor of Management, Professor of Finance, and the J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity in the Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama. Dr. Jackson’s main research areas are entrepreneurial finance, venture capital and private equity, consumer finance, corporate governance, industrial economics, strategic economics, financial literacy, financial markets and institutions, and social justice and economic inequality. Dr. Jackson received a BA in economics and applied mathematics at Center College, an MBA in finance at Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Chicago. Before joining the faculty at the University of Alabama, Dr. Jackson was a financial economist and associate policy advisor in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Previous to his position at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Dr. Jackson was a tenured professor of finance at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Jackson’s research has been published in some of the leading academic journals in the areas of entrepreneurship, empirical economics, management, and finance such as the Journal of Business Venturing, the Journal of Corporate Finance, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Money Credit and Banking, the Review of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Banking and Finance, Management Science, the Journal of Small Business Management, Small Business Economics Journal, and The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The prestigious Kauffman Foundation has sponsored his research on small firm and entrepreneurial finance.

Dr. Lou Marino is the Department Chair of the Management Department, a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management, and the Frank Mason C&BA Faculty Fellow in Family Business in the Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama. Dr Marino earned his doctorate from Indiana University in 1998 and joined Culverhouse the same year. He helped found the Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute and has led the development of the Entrepreneurship Curriculum in the College of Business. Dr. Marino’s main research areas are neurodiversity in entrepreneurship, economic empowerment through entrepreneurship, minority entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial ecosystems, and the role of entrepreneurial orientation in firm performance. His research includes presentations in national and international venues as well as more than 45 publications including 24 refereed journal articles in leading academic outlets such as the Academy of Management Journal, the Journal of International Business, the Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice. His research has been recognized with best paper awards at both the Academy of Management and at the Babson conference. Dr. Marino has served the Academy and the field of Entrepreneurship in several ways. At the Academy, he has co-chaired the Early Career Development Workshop, the Mid-Career Development Consortium, served on the Research Committee where he headed up a subcommittee to award the Best Family Business Paper and has served on the Innovations subcommittee. Outside of the AoM’s Entrepreneurship Division, he has served as a senior scholar at the Strategic Entrepreneurship Society, on the Board of Reviewers for the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference and the Sustainability, Ethics, Entrepreneurship (SEE) Conference.