Entrepreneurship and Poverty Reduction in the AI and Digital Technology Era

Abstract Over the past few decades, entrepreneurial scholars have conducted extensive research on the issue of poverty alleviation. However, there has not yet been much research with respect to the emerging category of digitally driven entrepreneurship and, more specifically, the role and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on poverty reduction. In recent years, with the emergence of new and increasingly accessible digital technologies and AI, scholars have devoted significant amounts of energy to exploring a series of digital poverty reduction issues to leverage such technologies. This introductory essay of the Management and Organization Review special issue on digital poverty reduction presents several perspectives on digital poverty reduction, including the digital poverty reduction perspective, the digital platform empowerment perspective, the plight behavior perspective, the digital indigenous entrepreneurship perspective, and the technological and policy perspective. It further explores the approaches and mechanisms of digital technology in alleviating poverty through a literature review, employing a multi-faceted analysis of digital poverty reduction. This comprehensive exploration aims to offer research contributions that hold both theoretical and practical significance in the field of digital poverty reduction.