Page 62 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

2020 ITU Kaleidoscope Academic Conference

anticipated by organizations to ensure their future viability. 4.2 A typology of “going digital”
Influential visionary leaders and open-minded employees
proactively embrace the arrival of new technologies and The typology illustrated in Figure 1 is defined in terms of
advancement in technologies (invented inside or outside the two dimensions – the source of change and the end result of
organization) to initiate changes, aiming to positively impact the change. Change is characterized as exogenous or
organization identity and operational routines, or take the endogenous on the vertical axis of the matrix. The horizontal
first mover or early adopter advantage. Conversely, from an axis deals with the end result of a particular change, either
exogenous viewpoint, organizations initiate changes by realignment or transformation. In a nutshell, four types of
integrating digital technologies to interact with the outside change are identified: digitalization, digital mutation, digital
world. External factors such as competitive market pressures, metamorphosis, and digital transformation, and explained
customers’ growing expectations and fast-changing with typical examples.
behaviors empowered by digitalized offerings with various
choices, disruptive and/or strong competitors, market
velocity, the emergence of new, hybrid or improved digital
technologies, new emergent markets are invoked as the
ultimate driving forces of change to push organizations to
respond to perceived pressures and problems. We think the
difference between these two views of change is critical here.
Understanding the origin of change is vital to deduce
whether the change is mainly driven internally or externally,
urgent or not, planned or emergent, and whether it will lead
to pivots (fundamental alteration) or iterations (adjustments).
In the absence of exogenous pressures, what gets “put in,” in
the first place, depends more on the organization itself and
its resources and choices to proactively react to digital
technologies. The shift of focus from exogenous to
endogenous drivers and mechanisms, in this case, may help Figure 1 – A typology of “Going digital”
to avoid making detours or taking wrong paths in the “going
digital” process and increase the success rate.
4.2.1 Digitalization
4.1.2 The end result of “going digital” Digitalization is a non-fundamental exogenous change
undertaken to realign the way the organization operates and
The use of digital technologies may generate various reinvent the existing value proposition. When there is
outcomes (i.e., the consequence of change that relates to external pressure due to a successful new strategy adopted
processes and offerings, the quality of entities’ relationship by a competitor or changes in the availability of a key
with others such as competitiveness, advantages, efficiency), resource, organizations will respond by a non-fundamental
and have a different impact (i.e., the non-quantifiable long- change implemented gradually through staged initiatives to
term effects that the change may have: value creation) on the adapt and exploit digital technologies (if the external
organizations in divergent context. We explained how going pressure doesn’t have a threatening effect); or respond by
digital can differ according to the patterns by which the realigning organizational operation in a much faster and
nature of change relates to the expected outcome produced dramatic fashion (if an immediate change is required). This
while developing the unified definition of DT. In essence, kind of change is not about doing things in fundamentally
the improvement can either be radical (DT) or incremental different ways, nor about fundamentally different things, but
(digitalization), implying either the emergence of redefining about keeping pace with the emergent digital technologies.
value proposition (DT) by capability-driven outcome (e.g., Digitalization may involve incremental changes in reaction
business model innovation, new revenue streams, radical to external problems, events, or pressures; or significant
changes in offerings, and game-changing restructure), or changes through large-scale and simultaneous project
reinforcing an existing value proposition (digitalization) by implementation to address the decline in organizational
economic-driven outcome (e.g., efficiency, cost reduction, performance, resulting from the increasing misalignment
errors elimination, and productivity). Aligning with the end with the operating environment. However, these initiatives
result of change (e.g., realignment and transformation), we are still rooted in the organization’s existing paradigm, and
think what marks digitalization out as a realignment rather they do not change the organization's identity. It usually
than DT is the extent to which the changes do not really requires digitizing problematic processes in operations or
extend beyond concerns for efficiency, productivity and automation of inefficient processes to optimize workflow
profitability, the fundamental influence of the organization’s efficiency, cost reduction, and productivity. To fill this gap
identity and the way employees think about their work. of insufficient knowledge base within the organization, and
fully integrate digital technologies to achieve corrective
maintenance and problem-solving, organizations may
involve a merger or acquisition of a high-tech start-up, or
running accelerator projects and hackathons, or organizing

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