Digital Transformation: meet or evade the Challenge? A Case Study in the Maritime Industry

Abstract

As the digital transformation wave expands, more and more existing firms find themselves lacking the capabilities required to cope with the transition. Management faces the question of developing new routines, resources and organizational structures without either damaging existing capabilities or missing current opportunities. We explore the issue through a case study of a large firm in the maritime industry, an industry leader in the digital transformation process. Our study uncovers a structural approach to the development of dynamic capabilities, focused on creating new organizations adjacent to the old structure, minimizing present interferences and attrition while simultaneously preparing the conditions for a sudden, controlled disruption process to take place in the medium term, timed to happen simultaneously with a structural change in market demand. Rather than digitally transform the existing firm, it appears preferable to build up a “born digital” structure from the ground up, benefitting from the domain expertise and the business network managed by the parent company. We argue that such approach may ease many of the tensions associated with digital transformation of oligopolistic incumbent firms and could be replicated widely outside the narrow confines of the maritime sector.