Digital Transformation as an Enabler to Become More Efficient in Sustainability: Evidence from Five Leading Companies in the Mexican Market

Abstract

Not only was Digital Transformation (DT) accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but over recent years some companies have already developed actions related to DT. It is well known that DT has many benefits, such as improving business models, making communication channels more efficient and facilitating decision-making. Furthermore, amongst others, one big challenge of DT is to contribute to areas related to sustainability. The objective of this article is to offer an exploratory review of how a small sample of leading Mexican companies have used DT as an enabler to be more efficient in some sustainability-related issues. The companies analyzed in this paper belong to different sectors: communication services, retail, financial, food and beverages, and materials. Through the identification of DT initiatives and implementations across time, a radar chart was constructed in order to identify, as a first approach, those related to sustainability in order to identify evidence of what some companies are doing in this regard. In addition, actions were grouped under the Business Dimensions defined by Deloitte Development LLC in order to emphasize the focus given by the organizations. One of the main conclusions from the evidence is that indeed big companies have a digital strategy agenda but not necessarily related to sustainability, but also that it is collaterally affected positively due to the economies of scale and operational improvements, from DT. This a qualitative primary study that can be reinforced in the future with analytical evidence that can measure impacts, effects, etc., to enrich strategies that relate to both DT and sustainability.