Following Wiesböck (2018)’s model, digital innovations involve two effects that are induced by digital technologies: digitalization and digital transformation. Digitalization, on the one side, concerns the identification, adoption, adaption, development, and management of innovative digital technologies (Legner et al. 2017). Organizations need to be able to handle digitalization in order to develop specific digital solutions that are based on abstract digital technologies (Wiesböck 2018). Digital transformation, on the other side, concerns how organizations unleash the transformative impact of digital technologies (Legner et al. 2017; Wiesböck 2018). In the context of digital innovations, organizations need to complement digital solutions with digital business concepts (Wiesböck 2018). Therefore, we argue that an organization’s DIC is characterized by how it is able to handle these two effects. 

 

What is more, the three basic artifacts of digital innovations (digital technologies, digital solutions, and digital business concepts) follow a logical evolutionary path (Wiesböck 2018). To begin with, organizations need to identify innovative digital technologies based on which they can then develop innovative digital solutions. Then, organizations need to complement their innovative digital solutions with innovative digital business concepts. The transition from an abstract digital technology to a concrete digital solution characterizes an organization’s digitalization (Legner et al. 2017; Wiesböck 2018). The transition from a digital solution to a digital business concept characterizes an organization’s digital transformation (Legner et al. 2017; Wiesböck 2018). Accordingly, organizations need to be able to handle both the transition from abstract digital technologies to concrete digital solutions (i.e., digitalization) and the transition from digital solutions to digital business concepts (i.e., digital transformation). Thus, coming from an IS perspective, an organization’s DIC can be defined as its ability to handle digitalization and digital transformation processes that accompany the use of innovative digital technologies. Accordingly, an organization’s DIC is characterized by two complementary digital capabilities: digitalization capabilities and digital transformation capabilities. Figure 2 shows this digital technology-centered first-level conceptualization. 

 

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.