“Diversification in the Digital Age: Rethinking Corporate Scope, Strategy, and Structure”

Call for Papers – Special Issue: “Diversification in the Digital Age: Rethinking Corporate Scope, Strategy, and Structure”

Journal: Long Range Planning
Publisher: Elsevier
Submission deadline: 01 May 2026

Overview

Traditional diversification frameworks, long dominated by economic logic regarding asset redeployment and transaction costs, are being fundamentally challenged by the digital age. Technologies such as AI, cloud computing, and platform infrastructures have decoupled diversification from physical asset specificity, allowing firms like Amazon and Alphabet to succeed in seemingly unrelated industries through data-driven and ecosystem-based execution. This special issue seeks to develop a new, integrated theory of "digital diversification" that accounts for data as a generative asset, algorithmic governance, and ecosystem-based strategy.

Key Research Themes

• Strategic Drivers & Capabilities: Defining new constructs such as "digital synergies" and "personalization at scale." Identifying capabilities like ecosystem orchestration and AI integration that enable successful diversification.

• Data as a Generative Asset: Investigating how firms repurpose data across unrelated industries, the limits of data reuse, and the organizational risks of data-led diversification compared to traditional asset-led models.

• Corporate Governance & Structure: Rethinking the multidivisional (M-form) model in favor of emerging structures like the "CM-form" (centralized multidivisional form), which centralizes data/platform control while decentralizing market execution.

• Ecosystem Execution: Examining how firms manage partner strategies, data ownership asymmetries, and the contractual/reputational risks inherent in ecosystem-based diversification.

Submission Details

• Submission window: Open now – 01 May 2026.

• Submission portal: https://www.editorialmanager.com/LRP

• Special Initiative: A paper development workshop will be held at the London Business School in Winter 2026/27. Prospective authors may submit their ideas for developmental feedback.

Guest Editors

• Gianvito Lanzolla, Bayes Business School

• Costas Markides, London Business School

• Ivanka Visnjic, ESADE

Why This Issue Matters

The strategic dichotomy between focused firms and broad-based "digital diversifiers" indicates that traditional theories of the "diversification discount" are no longer sufficient. This issue serves as a critical call to reconceptualize corporate scope, providing a scholarly foundation for understanding how data-driven advantages and algorithmic control have rewritten the rules of corporate competitive advantage.

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