Identification and analysis of the dimensions of digital entrepreneurship development and provision of its model for knowledge-based SMEs

Digital entrepreneurship is a new way of doing business that paves the way for economic development in developing countries, and the need for its development has accelerated in line with the prevalence of Covid-19. On the other hand, the development of digital entrepreneurial businesses in Iran is relatively slow and so far a comprehensive study has not examined the dimensions of the development of such businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the dimensions of digital entrepreneurship development in small and medium-sized knowledge-based firms and develop a model for it. In this research, first, by literature review and semi-structured interviews, 147 codes related to digital entrepreneurship development have been identified. Then the codes have been classified into 29 basic themes and 7 organizing themes through qualitative content analysis and the themes are classified into three levels (contextual, structural, and content) using interpretive structural modeling. Finally, the proposed model has been confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modeling. According to the research findings, among the 7 effective factors in the development of digital entrepreneurship, structural and contextual factors are the most influential and impressionable factors, respectively, and therefore have a key role in the development of digital entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized knowledge-based firms.