Digital transformation strategy making in pre-digital organizations: The case of a financial services provider

By Simon Chanias, Michael D. Myers, Thomas Hess. Journal of strategic information systems, 2019

678 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The formulation and implementation of a digital transformation strategy (DTS) has become a key concern for many pre-digital organizations across traditional industries, but how such a strategy can be developed remains an open question. We used interpretive in-depth case study research to study how a European financial services provider has formulated and implemented a DTS. By focusing on the underlying processes and strategizing activities, we show that digital strategy making not only represents a break with the conventions of upfront strategic information systems (IS) planning, but reveals a new extreme of emergent strategy making. Specifically, we conclude that a DTS is continuously in the making, with no foreseeable end. By building on theory from IS strategizing and strategy-as-practice literature, we theorize an integrated process/activity model that characterizes DTS formulation and implementation in pre-digital organizations. Our model shows that the crafting of a DTS is a highly dynamic process involving iterating between learning and doing.

Subfields: Management Information Systems, Sociology and Political Science, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/00a200189678b773ccf0d65fe7a197a73dd21426

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Management Information Systems

1. T. T. Sousa-Zomer
2. Andy Neely
3. Veronica Martinez
4. Sascha Kraus

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Samuel Chng
2. Andy Neely
3. Brigid Trenerry
4. Sascha Kraus
5. Zainal Shah Suhaila
6. Peng Ho Oh
7. Yang Wang
8. Han Lu

In Strategy and Management

1. T. T. Sousa-Zomer
2. Andy Neely
3. Veronica Martinez
4. Sascha Kraus
5. Jan Mouritsen
6. Suresh Cuganesan

Citations in the corpus

• Digital transforming capability and performance: a microfoundational perspective (2020, background): “Unlike born-digital organisations, pre-digital organisations need to pursue a huge transformation (Chanias et al., 2019), meaning that they need to develop new capabilities.”
• Digital transformation in business and management research: An overview of the current status quo (2022, background): “The rigorous study of DT is generally still at an early stage (Chanias, Myers, & Hess, 2019), and the studies conducted on it are too often overly optimistic about it (Kar et al., 2019).”
• Preparing Workplaces for Digital Transformation: An Integrative Review and Framework of Multi-Level Factors (2021, background): “Key initiatives include engaging internal actors in “episodes of digital strategy making” (Chanias et al., 2019, p. 30).”