Entrepreneurs’ Information-Seeking Behaviors in the Digital Age–A Systematic Literature Review

This paper explores how digitalization and development of critical literacies influence changes in entrepreneurs’ information-seeking behavior, and how such changes in behavior directly influence the resource acquisition, bundling, and leveraging process, contributing to the development of personal and business competencies and growth. Building on the logic of resource-orchestration theory, this paper presents a systematic literature review covering 39 studies published between 1990 and 2020 that summarizes the current state and trends at the intersection of digitalization, the entrepreneurs’ critical literacies, and information-seeking behavior. The review results reveal three main streams of research including (i) digitalization and entrepreneurs’ ICT adoption, (ii) entrepreneurs and critical literacies, and (iii) entrepreneurs’ information-seeking behavior. Based on the review results that reflect a fragmented status quo of entrepreneurship research, we develop a holistic framework and outline future research directions for entrepreneurship. This research expands the traditional boundaries of entrepreneurship research by considering the implications of entrepreneurs’ critical literacies and their information behavior on resource orchestration process. The findings provide practical implications indicating the need to address the key challenges of entrepreneurs in a fast-changing and interconnected business environment.