Purpose This study investigates how next-generation leadership characteristics drive digital strategic renewal in family firms. Specifically, it examines the roles of next-generation digital leadership competence, digital entrepreneurial orientation, and strategic autonomy in fostering strategic ambidexterity, and how ambidexterity subsequently translates into digital strategic renewal through knowledge integration and family governance support. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on organizational ambidexterity theory and the knowledge-based view, the study develops and empirically tests a theoretically grounded process model using survey data collected from 304 family firms. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) is employed to evaluate the measurement and structural models and to examine both direct and indirect hypothesized relationships. Findings The results confirm that next-generation digital leadership competence, digital entrepreneurial orientation, and strategic autonomy each positively contribute to strategic ambidexterity, with digital entrepreneurial orientation emerging as the most influential antecedent. Strategic ambidexterity, in turn, significantly drives both knowledge integration and family governance support for digital change. Knowledge integration and governance support subsequently exert positive effects on digital strategic renewal. Serial mediation analysis further reveals that next-generation leadership characteristics drive digital strategic renewal through a sequential chain of ambidexterity, knowledge integration, and governance support, confirming that digital renewal in family firms is a process-oriented and governance-embedded phenomenon rather than a direct outcome of leadership alone. Originality/value This study makes several original contributions. It advances next-generation leadership research by empirically linking successor-specific attributes to ambidextrous capability development in family firms. It extends organizational ambidexterity theory by positioning ambidexterity as a central processual driver of digital renewal rather than a performance outcome. It enriches the knowledge-based view in the family business context by demonstrating that ambidextrous strategies enable the productive recombination of legacy and digital knowledge across generations. Finally, it offers a dynamic perspective on family governance by showing that governance support for digital change is not merely a structural precondition but can be actively cultivated through demonstrated ambidextrous capability. Together, these contributions offer a process-oriented and generationally sensitive explanation of how family firms reconcile continuity and change in the digital era.
Khodor Shatila (Mon,) studied this question.