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Top1. Introduction
Digital technologies consist of a group of vigorous, easy to use, and hypothetically revolutionizing technologies like mobile, analytics, social, cloud, Internet of Things, biometrics, and cognitive computing (Ross, 2017). Many authors have stated that there is a disparate and thoughtful impact of digital technologies on organizations (Vial, 2019; Abedin et al., 2014; Warner & Wager, 2019). Digital technologies have radically altered how business is done (Gray et al., 2013). The digitalization of the innovation process subject is gaining momentum in the literature (Brem & Viardot, 2017). The rapid growth of digital technologies has brought about noteworthy improvements to many business processes in organizations (Galati & Bigliardi, 2019; Levine & Prietula, 2013; Yoo et al., 2012) and has also played an essential role in the innovation field (Hylving, 2015; Holmstrom & Partanen, 2014).
Organizations are subjected to increasing pressure to use digital technologies in renewing and transforming their business models (Kohli & Melville, 2019). However, many are not taking the challenge to respond to digital trends (Kane et al., 2015), thus creating a disorder between demands in the marketplace and organizational capabilities to answer. Many studies have been carried out relative to digital innovation over many decades; however, the research issues are unclear, and how such studies fit together produce opportunities for new understanding (Kohli & Melville, 2019). Moreover, organizations are looking for new knowledge about digital transformation so that such knowledge can be made available to practicing managers in organizations.
Thus, this study addresses this gap in knowledge by asking this question: “How can we identify the factors that will contribute to the development of a model on digital innovation strategy in organizations?” To answer this vital question, factors influencing digital innovation strategy in organizations are identified, then a model that can be used to develop a digital innovation strategy is developed. Both academia and practitioners can use this model to organize digital innovation strategies in their respective working environments.
The need to continue investigating the theory on digital innovation was emphasized in a special issue on this topic regarding the research stream of information systems (Nambisan et al., 2017). Moreover, the investigation of benefits, risks, and implications of utilizing digital technologies becomes highly important and understanding how innovation processes can accommodate the utilization and application of digital technologies (Agostini et al., 2019). Therefore, there is a need to have a model developed that can be used to develop digital innovation strategy in organizations since such a model is nonexistent currently as gathered from the literature.
This paper is organized as follows: the literature review section, next, digitalization, digital transformation, and innovation were contextualized. The third section presents the conceptual framework and the research hypotheses. The fourth section examines the research methodology in which the sample selection, instrument development, and analysis approaches were explained. Fifth, the paper presents the findings and discusses those findings. This last section concludes the study and offers recommendations on future research options.