Towards digital transformation: Lessons learned from traditional organizations

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jsc.2185
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Author: Glenn Parry,Vikas Kumar,Sally Eaves,John Loonam
• Date: 01 March 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

DOI: 10.1002/jsc.2185

Strategic Change. 2018;27(2):101–109. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jsc © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 101

Abstract

Digitally enabled organizaons are supported by new informaon and communicaon technolo‐

gies, referred to as digital technologies, which increasingly promise enormous opportunies for

growth. The study reviews 10 case studies from the literature and analysis the approaches these

organizaons have taken to successfully implement digital technologies. The ndings reveal a

conceptual framework that seeks to support management in understanding the acons required

to implement digital transformaon.

1 

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 INTRODUCTION

Digitally enabled organizaons are supported by new informaon and

communicaon technologies (ICT), referred to as digital technologies,

which increasingly promise enormous opportunies for growth. These

new digital technologies embrace ICT systems such as virtualizaon,

mobility, and analycal systems and are integrated with back‐oce

ICT to provide a holisc view of the digital enterprise. Such iniaves

are referred to as digital transformaons, which require organizaons,

and respecve management, to signicantly reect on the process

of successful implementaon. Yet, history teaches us that the imple‐

mentaon of large‐scale ICT‐enabled change iniaves have a poor

rate of success across organizaons. Some studies, for example, cite

up to 90% failure rates for the implementaon of enterprise systems.

Yet, our empirical understanding of how organizaons implement

digital transformaon iniaves remains fragmented, with Hess, Ma,

Benlian, and Wiesböck, for example, nong that “recent work in aca‐

demia has been largely concerned with providing guidance on certain

aspects of digital transformaon” (2016, p. 124). Consequently, this

study seeks to explore the acons required when implemenng digital

transformaon within tradional organizaons.

The arcle reviews 10 digital transformaons from the case litera‐

ture and proposes a conceptual framework. The proposed framework

will support researchers in building an exploratory perspecve on the

topic of acons taken by leaders for digital transformaon implemen‐

taon, while providing praconers with a useful benchmarking tool

to checklist key criteria important to the successful implementaon

of digital transformaon. The arcle begins with a preliminary review

of the literature on organizaonal business models and digital trans‐

formaon iniaves. The arcle then discusses the methodological

approach to inquiry, which is followed by ndings and the proposi‐

on of a conceptual framework. The arcle concludes by drawing out

the key academic and managerial implicaons from this study before

briey nong the study limitaons and proposing suggesons for

future research inquiry.

2 

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 ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS

MODELS

As this arcle seeks to explore the acons required by organizaons

that choose to digitally transform their organizaons, it is important

to provide a brief overview of the eect this emerging topic has on

respecve business models. According to Lambert and Davidson, who

reviewed empirical studies that used the business model construct

between 1996 and 2010, “there is no widely agreed upon denion

and composion of the business model concept” (2013, p. 668). For

example, they note that Weill and Vitale describe the business model

as a set of “roles and relaonships among a rms consumers, custom‐

ers, allies, and suppliers” (2002, p. 34), while Afuah notes that it “is a

set of acvies which a rm performs” (2004, p. 9), with Osterwalder

and Pigneur viewing it as a support “in arculang how the rm cre‐

ates and captures value” (2009, p. 14), and nally Zo and Amit view‐

ing the business model as a “system of interdependent acvies that

transcend the focal rm and spans its boundaries” (2010, p. 216).

Towards digital transformaon: Lessons learned from

tradional organizaons*

John Loonam1 | Sally Eaves2 | Vikas Kumar3 | Glenn Parry3

1 Business School, Dublin City University,

Dublin, Ireland

2 Said Business School, University of Oxford,

Oxford, United Kingdom

3 Faculty of Business & Law, University of the

West of England, London, United Kingdom

Correspondence

John Loonam, Dublin City University,

Dublin 9, Ireland.

Email: john.loonam@dcu.ie

* JEL classicaon codes: D83, L86, O33.