Digital transformation in the third sector and desirable leadership styles: a bibliometric analysis and text-mining approach

In recent years, digital transformation has been gaining traction as an operational priority in public and private sectors, thus prompting widespread research on its significance, application, and implementation in such entities. Its relevance and positioning in the third sector, however, has been grossly overlooked. Knowledge gaps therefore exist on required frameworks and organizational considerations - such as suitable leadership styles - that the third sector needs to initiate and sustain digital transformation journeys. This study aims to fill this research shortfall by analyzing how existing literature addresses digital transformation in the context of third sector organizations. It also evaluates whether current scholarship has explored leadership measures that can assist organizations with a dynamic and transformative process. Results have been obtained through bibliometric analysis (science mapping - co-word analysis) and text mining (text-classification technique), conducted on a synthesized dataset. Findings reveal that only two research publications examine digital transformation, the third sector, and leadership styles as interconnected themes. Furthermore, research that solely focuses on the third sector and leadership also discusses, to an extent, digital transformation as an organizational consideration. However, such scholarly works are in short supply. Thus, there is an urgent need to understand how digital transformation is factored in by the third sector, and what leadership styles are needed for effective journeys. The paper concludes with managerial implications emerging from the analyses.