Disentangling the Digital Strategy Landscape: An Integrative Literature Review on Digital Business Models

Digital business models (DBMs) have emerged as a critical area of inquiry in response to the rapidly evolving business environment driven by digital technologies. To provide a detailed understanding of DBMs from a strategy perspective, this study conducts an integrative literature review, analyzing 147 articles published in top-tier management journals. Utilizing a theoretical lens grounded in strategic agility (emergent vs. problem-solving) and strategic orientation to the ecosystem (responding vs. shaping), we develop a 2x2 matrix that delineates four distinct strategic archetypes: Seekers, Game-Changers, Endurers, and Challengers. Seekers represent firms that proactively search for novel digital solutions and adopt a problem-solving approach to respond to ecosystem pressures. Game- Changers, on the other hand, strive to shape ecosystem dynamics through innovative DBMs grounded in problem-solving postures. Endurers demonstrate resilience by adopting an emergent approach to digital reconfiguration in response to ecosystem forces, while Challengers seek to enhance their competitive positioning by leveraging emergent paradigms in the digital realm. By synthesizing the existing literature and offering an archetype-based framework, this study elucidates the underlying strategic configurations of DBMs, thus contributing to a more nuanced understanding of digital strategies. Furthermore, we identify research gaps and propose future research directions that explore shifting boundary conditions, value reconfiguration, and strategically driven initiatives for competitive advantage in the context of digital business models.