A Consolidated View of the Role of Resources in Digital Transformation Initiatives

Abstract

The burgeoning adoption of digital technologies has allowed contemporary business organizations to endure unprecedented transformation opportunities. Albeit the affirmations on bridging the ‘digital divide’ appear on the extent of the resource availability, it is argued that resource-constrained environments could provide substantial opportunities for less resourceful firms to expedite digital transformation initiatives at a competitive edge. This paper opens a new standpoint in relation to the role of resources and the overarching strategy of successfully expediting digital business transformation. The study first employs an inductive, grounded theory method-based analysis of 230 peer-reviewed publications to derive an a-priori model featuring digital and non-digital factors that will influence digital transformation initiatives. The instantiation of the a-priori model against the interpretive case studies eventually sees an integrative model featuring four prominent theories of digital transformation literature, iterative nature of the process and possible tensions between incumbent and new technologies with three key phases.