Opportunity Development Mechanism of Enterprises in Digital Transformation from an Ecosystem Perspective: Based on the Case Studies of Haier and Suning

Abstract

Successful digital transformation should be a cross-sector, cross-industry reformation that requires the full use of collective intelligence. Therefore, traditional enterprises urgently need to integrate into or even build a digital entrepreneurial ecosystem to continuously develop new opportunities, so as to successfully realize digital transformation in the digital context. However, the research on the opportunity development mechanism of digital transformation enterprises has lagged far behind the development of practice. The perspective of entrepreneurial ecosystem provides an effective research perspective for this. Therefore, combined with relevant research, this paper takes Suning and Haier as case enterprises to conduct in-depth comparative analysis, refines the differences and the generic rules based on the cases, puts forward the opportunity development mechanism research model of digital transformation enterprises from the ecosystem perspective, and puts forward the corresponding propositions.Using the exploratory case study, we find that the core impetus of opportunity development in digital transformation enterprises is the formation of symbiotic relationship, which is driven by external oriented organizational culture, entrepreneurial leadership and customer orientation. Symbiotic relationship drives opportunity development by improving ambidextrous digital entrepreneurial capability of digital transformation enterprises. In addition, there is a benign interaction between symbiotic relationship and the opportunity development of digital transformation enterprises. Specifically, symbiotic relationship will promote the opportunity development of digital transformation enterprises, and opportunity development will further extend and strengthen the symbiotic relationship between digital transformation enterprises and the participants in this process.This study contributes to the literature in three ways. First, this study demonstrates the positive impact of symbiosis on the opportunity development of digital transformation enterprises. This will help enrich the research on opportunity development and inspire more scholars to further explore the internal mechanism between symbiosis and opportunity development. Second, we link entrepreneurial ecosystem with opportunity development in the context of digital transformation, and summarize the driving factors of symbiotic relationship and their interaction with opportunity development, which is helpful to deepen the theoretical research of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Third, by the case studies of Haier and Suning, this paper constructs the relationship model of “driving factors-symbiotic relationship-opportunity development” from an ecosystem perspective. The research findings provide valuable and deeper explanations for digital entrepreneurial activities of traditional enterprises in China, and promote the in-depth development of digital entrepreneurship research.