Based on a comprehensive research study using grounded theory ( Wolfswinkel et al., 2013), Vial (2019) shows in his paper that researchers are still not clear about the definition of “digital transformation,” its scale and scope as well as the differences between “digital transformation” and “IT-enabled transformation.” Literature review on the digital transformation in salesĭespite the impression that the phenomenon of digital transformation must have been exhaustively discussed from a theoretical and practical point of view ( Bharadwaj et al., 2013 Hess et al., 2016 Matt et al., 2015 Ross, 2019 Westerman et al., 2011), it still has to be considered as a rather young research domain ( Vial, 2019 Singh et al., 2019). Based on these insights, management implications for companies as well as directions for future research will be derived. In the following sections, the paper reviews the literature on digital transformation in sales, explains the design of the exploratory research study, highlights its major findings and derives a market-oriented model for digital transformation. This research paper aims to provide a conceptual framework on how to engage more adequately in the digital transformation process in sales by identifying the key management areas of digital transformation as well as by taking interdependencies across the company’s departments and the company’s ecosystem into account. Consequently, companies are uncertain about the future direction of their digital transformation process. Since the 2010s, sales research has increasingly included additional digital tools such as social media, mobile marketing ( Lamberton and Stephen, 2016 Kumar et al., 2020) and only recently also artificial intelligence (AI) technologies ( Singh et al., 2019).ĭespite the companies’ enormous efforts and investments in their digital transformation, the scientific discussion revolving around the “productivity paradox” ( Gordon, 2016 Saniee et al., 2017 Solow, 1987) has never really stopped as the expected productivity gains have hardly materialized ( Acemoglu et al., 2014 Buttle et al., 2006) or the transformation projects have even failed ( Davenport and Westerman, 2018). Sales is making its own effort in contributing to the productivity gains of the company: since the 1980s sales researchers have been particularly concerned with the implementation of digital technologies in the form of customer relationship management (CRM) systems or sales force automation (SFA) ( Buttle et al., 2006 Honeycutt, 2002 Srivastava et al., 1999 Tanner et al., 2005). the business value of computers is limited less by computational capability and more by the ability of managers to invent new processes, procedures and organizational structures that leverage this capability ( Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 2000).Īccordingly, most business-to-business companies have started their digital transformation projects to further ensure their competitiveness ( Tabrizi et al., 2019). The full terms of this licence may be seen at Ī company’s digital transformation can lead to substantial productivity gains ( Brynjolfsson and Hitt, 1998, 2000): modern information technology (IT) reduces communication and coordination costs significantly and/or allows companies to improve their existing product portfolio or even create new products. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Copyright © 2020, Stefan Wengler, Gabriele Hildmann and Ulrich Vossebein.
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