Of leaders and laggards - Towards digitalization of the process industries

Abstract

The digital wave of change had an unprecedented effect on the competitiveness of the global value chain, whereby the process industries are not an exception. Although they are often regarded as laggards in the general progress towards adopting digital technologies, the pressure to cut costs and to review existing business models have prompted the industry forerunners within the process industries to reassess their business operations. One way to tackle this issue is to source information from the emerging startup landscape. To shed light on the importance of digitalization within the process industries, this paper provides a novel perspective using startup information. Therefore, it examines the interaction dynamics between the process industries and other industries. By centering on emerging interactions with information technology (IT)-related industries, this study further focuses on identifying the different digitalization efforts of the process industries and explores their varying degree of digital affinity. Our results indicate that not all process industries can be regarded as laggards in terms of incorporating digital capabilities. “Biotechnology”, “Pharmaceutical”, “Food and Beverage”, “Energy” and “Oil and Gas” demonstrated a higher IT-affinity, thus presenting themselves as digital leaders within the process industries. Judging from the IT-interaction preference, each segment of the process industries has adopted a unique pathway towards unlocking digital transformation opportunities.