Strategy in a Digital World
📝 Abstract
Organizations are increasingly adopting digital strategies and investing heavily in digital technologies and initiatives. However, to date, there does not appear to be a clear understanding of digital strategies and their purpose, which forms the motivation for this research. This research-in-progress study aims to address this research gap by exploring 1) the various conceptions of digital strategy, and 2) the way in which digital strategies differ from conventional strategies, through interviews with three senior executives. We employed thematic analysis to analyse the interview data, which resulted in the identification of ten themes that were grouped under three theoretical constructs. We then explored the applicability of the six dimensions of strategy proposed by Hax (1990) in the digital context and proposed two additional dimensions. The contribution of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of digital strategy to support further academic research and provide guidance to practitioners.
💡 Analysis
Organizations are increasingly adopting digital strategies and investing heavily in digital technologies and initiatives. However, to date, there does not appear to be a clear understanding of digital strategies and their purpose, which forms the motivation for this research. This research-in-progress study aims to address this research gap by exploring 1) the various conceptions of digital strategy, and 2) the way in which digital strategies differ from conventional strategies, through interviews with three senior executives. We employed thematic analysis to analyse the interview data, which resulted in the identification of ten themes that were grouped under three theoretical constructs. We then explored the applicability of the six dimensions of strategy proposed by Hax (1990) in the digital context and proposed two additional dimensions. The contribution of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of digital strategy to support further academic research and provide guidance to practitioners.
📄 Content
Australasian Conference on Information Systems
D’Cruz et al. 2015, South Australia
Strategy in a Digital World
Strategy in a Digital World
Melinda D’Cruz
Information Systems School
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
Email: melinda.dcruz@student.qut.edu.au
Greg Timbrell
Information Systems School
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
Email: g.timbrell@qut.edu.au
Jason Watson
Information Systems School
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
Email: ja.watson@qut.edu.au
Abstract Organizations are increasingly adopting digital strategies and investing heavily in digital technologies and initiatives. However, to date, there does not appear to be a clear understanding of digital strategies and their purpose, which forms the motivation for this research. This research-in-progress study aims to address this research gap by exploring 1) the various conceptions of digital strategy, and 2) the way in which digital strategies differ from conventional strategies. We interviewed three senior executives and employed thematic analysis to analyse the interview data, which resulted in the construction of ten themes that were grouped under three theoretical constructs. We then explored the applicability of the six dimensions of strategy proposed by Hax (1990) in the digital context and proposed two additional dimensions. The contribution of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of digital strategy to support further academic research and provide guidance to practitioners. Keywords Digital Strategy, Digital, Strategy Australasian Conference on Information Systems
D’Cruz et al. 2015, South Australia
Strategy in a Digital World
1 INTRODUCTION
‘Digital’ appears to be a phenomenon of growing importance at the board level as evidenced by the
birth of a new role in the C-Suite, a Chief Digital Officer (CDO). In fact, 52% of Chief Executive Officers
and other senior executives surveyed by Gartner in 2013 claimed that their organizations have in place
a ‘digital strategy’ (McGee 2013). Organizations are investing heavily in digital technologies and
initiatives, with Gartner (2014) predicting an increase in technology spending of 7.4% in the Asia
Pacific region in 2015 totalling US $811 billion in an effort to “embrace the digital economy”. There are
currently several academic studies on digital strategy: Bharadwaj et al. (2013) explore the scope, scale
and speed of digital business strategies and sources of value creation and capture; Mithas et al. (2013)
examine the influence of the industry environment and digital strategy posture on digital business
strategy; Grover and Kohli (2013) discuss the desirability and caveats in embracing digital business
strategies; and, Pagani (2013, p. 617) investigates “the dynamic cycle of value creation and value
capture points in digitally enabled networks”. Yet, despite significant organizational investments in
digital technologies and various academic studies, to date, a unified understanding of the phenomenon
of digital strategy does not exist, which is the motivation for this research-in-progress paper. The
contribution of this paper will be a deeper understanding of digital strategies, which will provide
guidance in academic research and facilitate more effective strategy derivation in industry.
This research appears to be the first academic study to explore qualitatively the different ways in which
entities conceive digital strategies. A common and unified understanding of digital strategies and the
way in which they differ from conventional strategies is paramount and a necessary precursor to
developing prescriptive frameworks for formulating and implementing digital strategies. By examining
existing literature and drawing on three interviews with senior executives in government, and large,
global professional service firms, we have begun to address this research gap by investigating the
following research questions: 1) What are the various conceptions of digital strategy? 2) How does
digital strategy differ from conventional strategy? While the broader research study aims to explore
the way in which organisations define, develop and implement digital strategies, the purpose of this
paper is not to examine specific approaches to digital strategy development and implementation or
propose frameworks for effective strategy derivation. Additionally, while business models and strategy
are related constructs, this paper does not aim to explore the concept of business models in detail or
examine the research findings in the context of emerging business models.
In this paper, we firstly present the key concepts and findings from the preliminary literature review,
followed by the theoretical lens and research methods adopted in this study. We then discuss the
initial findings in relation to the conceptions of digital strategy based on the inter
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