Joseph D'Souza Undergraduate Dissertation 2017/18

The Journey Through Digital Transformation To Maturity

Supervised by M.Stannett

Abstract

Businesses have constantly been told that by investing in digital transformation they can differentiate from their competitors, gain competitive advantage and become a 'digital leader' in their industry. Countless research studies have provided quantitative evidence to demonstrate this relationship between investment in digital technologies and business performance (e.g. higher revenues), but neglect the dynamic nature of digital maturity and transformation. Our own research study, therefore, poses the key question (i.e. research aim) which others fail to address: how are businesses and their industries affected throughout their journey of digital transformation?

To answer this, we first conducted interviews with digital transformation consultants, including Virgin Media Business, IndigoBlue Consulting Ltd, and one anonymous organisation. We used a recognised 'interview coding' technique to identify three key themes relevant to the scope of the project: Barriers and Enablers, Outcomes and Business Differentiation. We then produced an online questionnaire to investigate these themes further and ultimately achieve our research aim. The questionnaire was sent to 82 businesses from industries with varying digital maturity levels. To determine their digital maturity we used an existing model which groups businesses into four different maturity types: Beginners, Fashionistas, Conservatives and Digirati (Westerman et al., 2017), hence simulating the journey of digital transformation. Using this questionnaire data, we highlight issues that businesses experience when investing in digital technologies and transformation, and have produced six key findings. For example, we found that the skills and engagement of current employees was the most important factor that enabled highly mature businesses to reach their position, more so than other factors such as budget, strategy, and size of workforce.

Our research findings can now assist businesses with their strategic decisions about the digital economy, and support them through their journey of digital transformation. IndigoBlue Consulting have produced a short summary report of our findings (included in this paper) to share directly with their customers and the wider industry.