In this article we provide a systematic review of the extensive yet diverse and fragmented literature on digital transformation (DT), with the goal of clarifying boundary conditions to investigate ...the phenomenon from the perspective of organizational change. On the basis of 279 articles, we provide a multi‐dimensional framework synthesizing what is known about DT and discern two important thematical patterns: DT is moving firms to malleable organizational designs that enable continuous adaptation, and this move is embedded in and driven by digital business ecosystems. From these two patterns, we derive four perspectives on the phenomenon of DT: technology impact, compartmentalized adaptation, systemic shift and holistic co‐evolution. Linking our findings and interpretations to existing work, we find that the nature of DT is only partially covered by conventional frameworks on organizational change. On the basis of this analysis, we derive a research agenda and provide managerial implications for strategy and organizational change.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
By appointing a chief digital officer (CDO), firms decide for a central role responsible for their digital transformation. While CDOs have recently appeared in the C‐suites of firms across the globe, ...the current literature lacks insights into the specific antecedents of CDO presence. Grounded in the peculiarities of the digital age, we provide theoretical arguments explaining how the decision to centralize digital transformation responsibilities might be related to transformation urgency and coordination needs. Empirical analyses based on a panel data set of 913 US and European firms support that transformation urgency and coordination needs predict CDO presence. An additional analysis of moderating temporal effects reveals that, over time, the effect of transformation urgency is weakened and the effect of coordination needs on CDO presence is strengthened. We discuss implications for research and practice regarding the antecedents of CDO presence, TMT research more generally, and centralization in the digital age.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
•We find that integrating digital technologies in business models affects organizational path dependence.•We find that the growing integration of digital technologies into business models can help to ...break path-dependent behavior and escape lock-ins.•We provide a nuanced perspective on path dependence's resource- and cognition-based foundations and their interplay.•Detailed account of the emergence of connected car business models from 2007 until 2017.•We distil four connected car business model archetypes and show how digital business models emerge.
Proliferating digitalization affects the evolution of business models across contexts and challenges firms’ established innovation trajectories. Prior work on organizational path dependence suggests that firms experience decreasing option spaces over time and ultimately arrive at lock-in situations that prevent them from reacting to changing environmental conditions. Contemporary business practice, however, challenges these assumptions, as firms—even industrial-age incumbents—appear to be able to escape lock-ins and restore choices. One potential explanation for this could be the flexible nature of digital technologies that are increasingly integrated into business models during digitalization. To explore how and why this process affects organizational path dependence, we conducted a longitudinal multiple case study on connected car business models. We derive four business model archetypes adopted by different companies in the automotive industry and by new entrants, and we describe their evolution over time. We find that the growing integration of digital technologies into business models increases the number of possible pathways and can help to break path-dependent behavior. Based on our findings, we challenge and extend established knowledge on organizational path dependence with regard to key tenets, such as initial conditions and lock-ins, and provide a nuanced perspective on path dependence's resource- and cognition-based foundations.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Digital innovation enables new forms of cyber-physical innovation based on digital business ecosystems. However, the realization of the opportunities arising from such innovation substantially hinges ...on interoperability, that is, the ability of two or more systems to exchange information and understand that exchanged information. While interoperability is a long-standing topic in research and practice alike and a valuable knowledge base exists, digital innovation poses novel challenges that might not be covered by conventional wisdom. Accordingly, we review the literature and, first, propose an organizing framework for existing interoperability knowledge involving the contextual conditions of low interoperability, the mechanisms to increase interoperability, and the associated outcomes. Second, we use the framework to identify previous research foci in the scholarly discourse about interoperability and to discuss the potential limitations of this past work in light of digital innovation. Third, we propose a research agenda that enables information systems (IS) research to address the identified limitations—involving conceptual, scoping, and methodological issues—and provide specific recommendations on how to address the identified issues in future IS research. Finally, we propose five major research topics for further inquiry by combining the challenges identified in current knowledge with the current shift toward hyper-connected ecosystems underlying digital innovation.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Aiming to support digital innovation endeavours, industrial-age companies increasingly acquire firms that heavily build upon digital technologies. Related research has raised serious concerns ...regarding the prospects of such plans, yet has not focused the particular context of digital mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Drawing on a knowledge-based perspective as well as the particularities of digital technologies and the context of digital innovation, we theorise the link between digital M&A, a digital knowledge base on the part of the acquirer, and the consequences for digital innovation and firm performance. We employ panel data regressions to a longitudinal dataset of the world's largest automobile manufacturers. Our findings suggest that executing digital M&A contributes to building the digital knowledge base of industrial-age firms, which in turn enables them to drive digital innovation. Our findings further indicate that digital innovation improves firm performance of industrial-age firms. We discuss implications for information systems research about M&A and digital innovation as well as recommendations for managerial practice.
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BFBNIB, GIS, IJS, KISLJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM, UPUK
•Boundary resources can provide openness in the form of access and resource openness.•Digital knowledge and digital complementors drive boundary resource deployments.•Use of boundary resources per se ...does not lead to positive performance implications.•Firms with high market power profit from boundary resource deployments.•Performance effects are primarily driven by boundary resources for access openness.
With business ecosystems digitalizing by the force of digital innovation, the deployment of boundary resources (such as application programming interfaces: APIs) becomes a strategic option across contexts. We distinguish between boundary resources that provide access openness and those that provide resource openness, and theorize the antecedents and consequences of their deployment. Employing panel data regressions to a longitudinal cross-industry dataset, we find that the digital knowledge base of the focal firm and the existence of potential digital complementors drive boundary resource deployment. Such deployment benefits firm performance depending on the firm’s market power. From our empirical analysis, we reveal a differentiated perspective on the quality of the confined openness provided by boundary resources as well as the embeddedness of their deployment in the rationales and motivations of the associated actors in digital business ecosystems. We complement the existent theoretical framework on boundary resources and provide valuable insights to managers reflecting about deploying boundary resources in a beneficial way.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
While multiple mechanisms for value creation from big data analytics (BDA) exist, their application in everyday life can create trade-offs, particularly in the context of service robotics where the ...dispersion of autonomous digital technologies creates potentials for data-driven efficiency gains. Attending to personal preferences in such contexts, increasingly vital for customer acceptance, may run counter to efficiency, thus constraining value creation and rendering efficiency-personalization trade-offs a key managerial challenge. For the case of autonomous vehicles (AVs), we formalize this trade-off and design a machine-learning approach to handle it by drawing on a unique dataset comprising 35,000 drives by 1,850 users. We consider the real-time dynamics and user interactions that affect the decisions of AVs and develop a model extension that allows for leveraging the properties of sharing business models to make better-informed decisions. Our study contributes to information systems (IS) AV research by providing an artifact that targets both efficiency and personalization of AV operations as well as the dynamic balance between the two. With the focus on everyday life contexts, our study points to the value of incorporating trade-offs between competing goals as well as human-centered perspectives in information systems designs for research on BDA value creation. For practitioners, our work provides a practical and generalizable approach to realize the potentials of service robots without risking customer acceptance.
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BFBNIB, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Digital applications in health care are a concurrent research and management question, where implementation experiences are a core field of information systems research. It also contributes to ...fighting pandemic crises like COVID-19 because contactless information flow and speed of diagnostics are improved. This paper presents three digital application case studies from emergency medicine, administration management, and cancer diagnosis with AI support from the University Medical Centers of Münster and Göttingen in Germany. All cases highlight the potential of digitalization to increase speed and efficiency within the front end of medicine as the crucial phase before patient treatment starts. General challenges for health care project implementations and human-computer interaction (HCI) concepts in health care are derived and discussed, including the importance of specific processes together with user analysis and adaption. A derived concept for HCI includes the criteria speed, accuracy, modularity, and individuality to achieve sustainable improvements within the front end of medicine.
On their journey toward digital transformation, industrial firms need to embrace digital innovation. The top management team (TMT) is expected to set the course for digital innovation, which is a ...challenging endeavour given the novel and cross-functional nature of digital innovation. We draw on role theory to make sense of emerging role requirements for the TMT and combine this view with upper echelon theory to hypothesize on the specific TMT characteristics that are needed for digital innovation. We first theorize that firms could benefit from TMT digital knowledge. Second, we argue that the effective utilization of TMT digital knowledge can be fostered at internal TMT interfaces, such as between the chief executive officer (CEO), respectively a chief digital officer (CDO), and other top managers. Finally, we consider the TMT hierarchical structure as a contextual factor in the stimulation of TMT integration processes by integrative CEOs and CDOs. We employ panel data regressions to a longitudinal dataset of US industrial firms and find a positive relation between TMT digital knowledge and digital innovation, on average. We additionally find evidence for the integrative roles of CEOs and CDOs. However, our findings also indicate that the CDO's integrating role can be hampered by a strong hierarchical structure in the TMT.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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