What is Digital Transformation and Digital Maturity?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the concepts of digital transformation and digital maturity, and specifically how they are conceptualized and how they relate to each other, in order to develop insights, critical reflections, future research paths, and research questions. The methodology is based on the three elements: a structured review of scholarly literature where both concepts occur, an AI-based study of both concepts, and a qualitative study with input from 177 experts on digital transformation. Findings confirm the conceptual ambiguity of both concepts which has been noted in extant literature. This ambiguity makes it difficult to rely on – let alone generalize from – digital transformation research output. This paper suggests both the possibility to deduct, from literature, an alternative definition of digital transformation as the “change between different states of digital maturity”, and the possibility of further simplifications, reductions, and variations, of both concepts. The theoretical and practical rationale is that change is the smallest common denominator of digital transformation, and that digital maturity is easier to measure, largely as an effect of existing and established classic maturity model, concepts, and constructs (e.g., organizational culture, leadership, learning, upskilling, et cetera) being increasingly used in general digital maturity models, which may suggest that digital transformation is not very different from other organizational changes, which in turn could have theoretical and practical implications for how the concepts of digital transformation and digital maturity are understood, measured and, ultimately, managed. The paper also highlights possible misconceptions in literature, and suggests that the successive changes between states are non-linear, as opposed to linear, and multi-directional, as opposed to unidirectional. This paper predicts a decreased use of term digital as a qualifying prefix, and that suggests that effectiveness is a common term which encapsulates what digital maturity represents. Keywords - Digital transformation, Digital Maturity, Change Management, Strategy, Literature Review, Paper type - Research paper, Empirical, Conceptual