Digital Business Transformations: An Investigation About Business-Driven and Technology-Enabled Strategies

Introduction

This chapter is designed with the aim of analyzing management and strategies of digital enterprise transformation, i.e. digital transformations that many companies decide to start proactively (to try to anticipate market changes) or reactively (to respond to market changes). Nowadays, market changes are due to the affirmation of a new paradigm of doing business that is strongly characterized by the role of new technologies (Carlsson, 2004; Glas & Kleemann, 2016). The affirmation of Information and Communications Technologies - ICT and Information and Communication Infrastructures - ICI is undeniable, just as it is indisputable the role that technologies and infrastructures have assumed in digital strategic planning processes, i.e. digital strategizing (Chanias et al, 2019; Warner & Wäger, 2019; Peter et al, 2020). This has led to the point that digital business transformations are increasingly being considered as a topic exclusively related to information technology and engineering fields of research (this is the research gap emerging from an extensive literature review).

In contrast with the above promise, the present research aims to investigate digital business transformations according to a managerial perspective that is often sacrificed in practice. The preponderant role that technologies are assuming often leads – in an incorrect way – to neglect the basic concepts of management that, on the other hand, persist in change and, indeed, constitute the backbone of change itself. In this vein, it is appropriate to keep in mind that companies are born with business strategies and that digital strategies (i.e. the strategic approach to digitization plans of companies) can enrich or complete them. For this reason, without aiming to question the key role of technologies and infrastructures and the continuous advances they achieve (Nambisan et al, 2017; Furr & Shipilov, 2019), the research question at the basis of this chapter sets out to investigate and recognize the value of the discipline of management in digital business transformations.

In this sense, throughout the chapter, it will be reiterated the idea that management of digital enterprise transformations are business-driven and technology-enabled processes that arise with a managerial connotation and feeds on concepts and theories typical of management studies. Technologies assume the key role of promoting their application and maximizing their efficiency. It does not sound correct to think that digital age is transforming the way of doing business, from a managerial to a technological perspective (Ayres & Williams, 2004; Ross et al, 2016; Quinton & Simkin, 2017; Sebastian et al, 2017; Ivančić et al, 2019; Nambisan et al, 2019; Tabrizi et al, 2019; Vial, 2019).

More specifically, by recalling the basic concepts of management discipline, it is appropriate to underline that the choices made by the companies, the plans they define and the actions they implement are – and, actually, they are going to be – choices that fall within the management filed of research. For this reason it can easily be argued that the digital transformation process is a business-driven process. At the same time, it is undeniable that technologies play a key role; however, it should be clarified, the key role is to accelerate, encourage and support these choices, these plans and actions without ever influencing the basic choices that (it is appropriate to repeat it once again) fall within the management discipline. For this reason it can be concluded that digital business transformations are technology-enabled processes.

In order to illustrate the reasons that led to define digital business transformations as business-driven and technology-enabled processes, it is going to be proposed a careful re-reading and an in-depth analysis of digital business transformations that, from a strategic point of view, can be oriented towards customer engagement or digitalized solutions. Both objectives entail one or more changes in the value creation process for which companies need to define their digital strategizing process and – before that – they need to proceed with a S.W.O.T. analysis. Accordingly, it results that digital business transformations are business-driven and technology-enabled processes. Practical cases, such as LEGO, Apple, McDonald’s and Rowenta clearly show this.

Because of the investigated topic, the chapter has important implications for management scholars, policy makers and practitioners. Management scholars are invited to underline the importance of business-driven and technology-enabled processes, strengthening the role of management issues in digital business transformations.