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

Chanias, Simon; Myers, Michael D. and Hess, Thomas (2019): Digital transformation strategy making in pre-digital organizations: The case of a financial services provider. In: Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol. 28, No. 1: pp. 17-33

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.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Munich School of Management > Institute for Digital Management and New Media; Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics > Computer Science
• Subjects: 000 Computer science, information and general works > 004 Data processing computer science; 300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
• ISSN: 0963-8687
• Annotation: Best Paper Award
• Language: English