PURPOSE: Explore what entrepreneurship and success factors can help drive business to resilience and stability and achieve competitive advantage through innovation in different countries and business realities in the era of digital transformation and turbulent times. METHODOLOGY: Based on the narrative literature review, we present research findings concerning new strategies and outlooks for business innovation in times of many unknowns. Each organization wants to find its way to gain success and create its unique business model, which can capture value creation and innovativeness and be more adaptive, resilient, and stable in critical moments and sustainable over time. FINDINGS: The articles presented in this issue explore the essential factors of business innovation and success in different organizations and the environments in which these businesses function. IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE: This article synthesizes the presented research field’s importance and relevance, connecting its theoretical background with practical research. Recommendations and implications for future trends of this research stream might also be helpful for professionals and academicians. ORIGINALITY AND VALUE: The novel studies presented in this issue were done in five different (developing and developed) countries and business sectors that present human-based and non-human-based factors as crucial factors needed to empower business transformation in a complex world. Each group of elements is essential in business success, and their components are interdependent. We need to look at the interactions and interdependencies of their components in a dynamic and network form and cannot simplify the reality, focusing only on one group of business components and ignoring the other. These unique studies provide a valuable outlook to establish dynamic, adaptive business pathways towards a sustainable and resilient organizational future and propose future research paths needed to execute structural changes in businesses.

Keywords: business model, innovation, critical success factors, digital transformation, knowledge management, talent management, competitiveness, leadership, transformation, change management, VUCA

Table of Contents

Business innovation and critical success factors in the era of digital transformation and turbulent times 7

Anna Florek-Paszkowska, Anna Ujwary-Gil, Bianka Godlewska-Dzioboń

Survival of the funded: Econometric analysis of startup longevity and success 29

Daniel Keogh, Daniel K.N. Johnson

The use of process benchmarking in the water industry to introduce changes in the digitization of the company’s value chain 51

Natalia R. Potoczek

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention: The mediating role of the need for independence 91

Victor Osadolor, Emmanuel K. Agbaeze, Ejikeme Emmanuel Isichei, Samuel Taiwo Olabosinde

Application of knowledge management tools: Comparative analysis of small, medium, and large enterprises 121

Natalia Sytnik, Maryna Kravchenko

Innovation among SMEs in Finland: The impact of stakeholder engagement and firm-level characteristics 157

Hannu Littunen, Timo Tohmo, Esa Storhammar