Digital transformation capabilities describe an organization’s ability to implement digital business concepts that complement digital solutions (i.e., handle the process of digital transformation). Similar to the process of digitalization, this concerns several organizational aspects (Wiesböck 2018). Firstly, organizations need to be able to create and run digital solutions. This demands that organizations are able to identify business opportunities that can result from the use of digital technologies (Cohen and Levinthal 1990; Fichman et al. 2014; Kohli and Melville 2018; Saraf et al. 2013). Then, similar to digital solutions, organizations need to be able to realize digital business concepts and embed them into existing business and operating structures (e.g., revenue models or business models) (Kohli and Melville 2018; Wiesböck 2018). Finally, organizations need to be able to operate, maintain, and advance digital business concepts (Wiesböck 2018) in order to exploit value from digital innovations (Fichman et al. 2014; Kohli and Melville 2018). This step includes the adoption and diffusion of the digital business concept within and beyond the organization (i.e., clients, customers, service providers etc.) (Fichman et al. 2014; Kohli and Melville 2018; Wei et al. 2015). 

 

In addition, organizations need to provide an inner-organizational environment that accommodates digital transformation (Hess and Barthel 2017; Kohli and Melville 2018; Wiesböck 2018). Therefore, organizations need to approach the digital transformation of their innovation practices (Hess and Barthel 2017), organizational culture (Hartl and Hess 2017; Piccinini et al. 2015), governance structures (Chanias 2017; Svahn et al. 2017), management roles (Singh and Hess 2017; Tumbas et al. 2017b), and, more comprehensively, organizational forms (e.g., through the set-up of dedicated digital business units or organization-wide digital innovation practices) (Hess et al. 2016; Wiesböck 2018). 

 

Lastly, in order to strategically approach the use of digital technologies for innovation purposes, organizations need to develop and implement a pertinent digital transformation strategy and align it with their IT and other organizational strategies (Bharadwaj et al. 2013; Hess et al. 2009; Matt et al. 2015; Yeow et al. 2017). Such a digital transformation strategy supports companies in governing the transformations that result from the use of digital technologies (Matt et al. 2015). 

 

Sumber: 

Wiesböck, F., & Hess, T. (2018). Understanding the capabilities for digital innovations from a digital technology perspective (No. 1/2018). Arbeitsbericht. 

 Legner, C./Eymann, T./Hess, T./Matt, C./Böhmann, T./Drews, P./Mädche, A./Urbach, N./Ahlemann, F. 2017. „Digitalization: Opportunity and Challenge for the Business and Information Systems Engineering Community.” Business & Information Systems Engineering, 59(6), 301-308.