DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURSHIP: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW OF THEIR CONCEPTUAL TENSIONS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS

This study assessed the relationship between digital transformation, innovative entrepreneurship, and business competitiveness through a qualitative integrative review. This work does not ‘report' original field data as in empirical research reports, but, in its focus on developing a critical conceptual analysis, draws from 20 field-based papers indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases and published by high-impact publishers such as Emerald Group, Elsevier, MDPI, Springer, and Taylor & Francis between 2021 and 2026. The aim is to analyze the conceptual perspective on digital transformation presented in the specialist literature, how it reconfigures organizational capacities, and how it is framed (convergently, with some positive and in opposition to others) as a phenomenon relating to digital entrepreneurship, dynamic capabilities, stages of entrepreneurial ecosystems, and regional digital inequalities. It uncovers five major conceptual themes, identifies similarities and differences, and sketches a matrix of gaps in the literature that informs and point toward a future empirical agenda. Digital transformation is considered a sociotechnical process rather than a single technological variable, leading to sustainable competitiveness when designed in parallel with dynamic capabilities, an entrepreneurial mindset, and ecosystem conditions.