From Research Gaps to Strategic Guidance

The theoretical and empirical analyses developed across the preceding parts of this volume have identified a set of unresolved tensions that constitute both the limitations of current scholarship and the most productive directions for future research. This chapter performs a dual function: it synthesizes the principal research gaps that emerge from the foregoing analysis, and it translates them into actionable strategic guidance for executives navigating AI-driven transformation. The underlying premise is that research gaps and managerial challenges are not separate phenomena but complementary manifestations of the same analytical frontier: the boundary between what is theoretically understood and what organizational practice requires. The translation from research gap to strategic guidance is not a mechanical exercise. It requires judgment about which theoretical uncertainties have the most consequential practical implications, which managerial challenges are most amenable to evidence-based intervention, and which tensions are likely to be resolved through organizational learning rather than through academic research alone. The chapter proceeds by identifying five major research gaps, analyzing their practical implications, and deriving from each a set of strategic principles calibrated for the conditions of AI-driven competition.