Purpose: In the digital age, companies require leaders to foster digital transformation entrepreneurship, i.e. the organisational attitude and orientation of the creation of a new business or the development of an existing business by having at the core or embracing digital transformation as the continuous development and application of digital knowledge for companies' value creation. This paper identifies six critical competencies distinguishing the transformative leadership profile supporting enterprises' digital transformation development.Design/methodology/approach: The paper, through a critical literature review focussing on three research streams, i.e. wise, transformative and digital leadership, addresses the following research question: What competencies characterise a digital transformative leader promoting and encouraging digital transformation entrepreneurship? Methodologically, first, explorative analysis of the literature has been carried out exploring the role and relevance of leadership in driving companies' digital transformation. Second, focussing on the three leadership perspectives, wise, transformative and digital, the critical features distinguishing each view have been identified. A set of hypotheses has been formulated to develop a framework to profile a digital transformative leader. In the third stage, the framework of the digital transformative leadership compass has been developed.Findings: The paper profiles the digital transformative leader, a critical figure in companies competing in the digital age to nurture digital transformation entrepreneurship. Six specific competencies are synthesised and proposed throughout the transformative leadership compass. It is presented as an interpretative framework helpful to understand what affects the organisational culture and behaviours driving digital transformation. The proposed model defines theoretical foundations to operationalise an assessment framework and developing empirical research about leadership characteristics hampering and enabling successful companies' digital transformation.Originality/value: The study proposes a novel framework based upon a critical analysis of the leadership literature. Combining insights gathered from the literature review on transformative, wise and digital leadership, the need for nurturing a transformative digital leadership allowing enterprises to stay competitive and able to change and adapt to the scenario's evolution emerged. Accordingly, the paper defines the digital transformative leader as a leadership profile sustaining organisational and digital transformation. The transformative leadership compass is proposed as a model to outline the critical competencies distinguishing a digital transformative leader capable of driving continuous company innovation and specifically digital transformation entrepreneurship.

Enterprises aimed at acquiring a sustainable competitive advantage in the Digital Era are challenged to develop a Transformative Digital Leadership marked by a set of abilities. The paper introduces the Digital Transformative Leadership Compass as an innovative framework to assess wise leaders’ characteristics driving organisational digital transformation in today’s complex business landscape. It identifies the critical abilities, attitudes, and behaviours distinguishing the profile of a transformative digital leader leading an organisation to continuously innovate and digitally evolve in the same way as the business landscape. This paper contributes to theory building by proposing an interpretative framework of critical abilities distinguishing a transformative digital leader of a transformative digital company. Furthermore, the paper provides practitioners with valuable insights and theoretical evidence on leadership practices in the digital era.

The attention of the academic and professional world to the potential benefits of Big Data is growing, as well as the awareness that they can represent fundamental drivers of organisational value creation. Indeed, Big Data is a critical intangible resource and source of value for organisations that can support the achievement of superior performance. Understanding the value of Big Data and how it contributes to value creation mechanisms defines an important area of research that needs to be further developed. The paper analyses the links between Big Data and organisational knowledge assets and proposes a framework to explain how Big Data contributes to organisational value creation mechanisms. It also highlights the role of knowledge assets as factors that influence the use, development and deployment of Big Data for organisational value creation dynamics.