A Research on Digital Transformation: Integration Framework and Prospects

Abstract

Digital transformation is a process that starts from the infrastructure of digital technology, digital products and digital platform, and then leads to changes in individual, organizational, industrial and other levels. With the development of artificial intelligence, big data, 5G and other emerging technologies, digital transformation is impacting and subverting the existing technology path and organization mode. The Report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China also proposes to promote the deep integration of digital technology and the real economy, accelerate the construction of digital-driven new industrial ecology, and urge all subjects to continuously explore the transformation mode. This phenomenon has aroused widespread concern in the academic and practical circle. The existing research mostly focuses on the formulation of digital transformation strategy, the relationship between digital technology and organizational performance, management adaptability and the change of business model. However, the impact and value of digital transformation have not been systematically integrated and summarized. Besides, it is still a problem for enterprises to deal with the challenges in digital transformation in order to obtain new competitive advantages while the existing theory cannot give systematic guidance. In view of this, this paper picks out 101 existing literatures from databases like Web of Science, Science Direct and CNKI. Then, the definition of digital transformation by scholars at present is summarized from two dimensions of technical support and organizational change. The existing research content of how to measure the completion of the transformation in a quantitative way is also summarized. On this foundation, the definition in this paper is put forward. This paper explains how the infrastructure including digital technology, digital products and digital platform can be used as the starting point to support and promote the transformation. In addition, it explores the introduction cost, subversion and upgrading of technology, the availability of products and how to provide innovative services, the multi-party interaction, information integration and business scope of the platform, etc. Moreover, this paper explores the multi-level changes in the process of transformation from three levels: individual level, organizational level and industrial level. The individual level mostly discusses the change of senior executives’ role, job creation and job destruction. The organizational level mostly studies the impact on organizational structure, ability and strategy. The industrial level mostly summarizes the change of business model and value chain. It summarizes the positive and negative effects of digital transformation. On the one hand, the transformation promotes the production efficiency and organizational performance. On the other hand, it poses a threat to privacy security and employee employment. In the next part, this paper puts forward the future research direction of digital transformation and the problems that should be paid attention to in the context of digital transformation in China. Firstly, scholars should explore the problems of technology, resources, platform construction in the starting point of transformation. Secondly, more research on the driving mechanism, dynamic development mechanism and resource integration ability in the process are also needed. Thirdly, how to deal with the threats and challenges brought by digital transformation is still not a fully-solved problem. With the unique context in China, more attention should be paid to the following research topics: the technological catch-up path of manufacturing enterprise as a latecomer, how the government, enterprises and society can develop harmoniously under the situation of digital industrialization and industrial digitization, the construction and mechanism of ecosystem as well as the solutions for Chinese enterprises to face the unique challenges. Finally, in the conclusion part, the integration framework of digital transformation theory is summarized from the three aspects of the starting point, process and result. This not only helps to systematically sort out the knowledge context of digital transformation, grasp the development trend of theoretical frontier, promote the in-depth development of research in this field, but also can effectively combine theory and practice, and provide reference for Chinese enterprises to formulate and implement effective digital transformation strategy.