https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/joms.12639

A Systematic Review of the Literature on Digital Transformation: Insights and Implications for Strategy and Organizational Change

Purpose – Within a very short period of time, the worldwide pandemic triggered by the novel coronavirus
has not only claimed numerous lives but also caused severe limitations to daily private as well as business
life. Just about every company has been affected in one way or another. This first empirical study on the
effects of the COVID-19 crisis on family firms allows initial conclusions to be drawn about family firm crisis
management.

Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory qualitative research design based on 27 semi-structured
interviews with key informants of family firms of all sizes in five Western European countries that are in
different stages of the crisis.

Findings – The COVID-19 crisis represents a new type and quality of challenge for companies. These
companies are applying measures that can be assigned to three different strategies to adapt to the crisis in the
short term and emerge from it stronger in the long run. Our findings show how companies in all industries and
of all sizes adapt their business models to changing environmental conditions within a short period of time.
Finally, the findings also show that the crisis is bringing about a significant yet unintended cultural change. On
the one hand, a stronger solidarity and cohesion within the company was observed, while on the other hand, the
crisis has led to a tentative digitalization.

Originality/value – To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical study in the management
realm on the impacts of COVID-19 on (family) firms. It provides cross-national evidence of family firms’ current
reactions to the crisis.

/pdf/the-economics-of-covid-19-initial-empirical-evidence-on-how-vp5geffrr7.pdf

The economics of COVID-19: initial empirical evidence on how family firms in five European countries cope with the corona crisis

Digital transformation and customer value creation in Made in Italy SMEs: A dynamic capabilities perspective

The objective of this study was to analyze how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) cope with environmental changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic by pursuing the business model transformation with the support of digital technologies. To achieve the objective, this study used a multiple case study design with qualitative analysis to examine the data obtained from interviews, observation, and field visits. Seven manufacturing SMEs from Indonesia were selected using a theoretical sampling technique, with the purpose of achieving some degree of variation to allow us to undertake replication logic. Our analysis demonstrates that SMEs adopt a different degree of digital transformations, which can be summarized into three paths, depending on the firms’ contextual factors. First, SMEs with a high level of digital maturity who respond to the challenges by accelerating the transition toward digitalized firms; second, SMEs experiencing liquidity issues but a low level of digital maturity who decide to digitalize the sales function only; and, third, the SMEs that have very limited digital literacy but are supported by a high level of social capital. This last group of firms solves the challenges by finding partners who possess excellent digital capabilities. The qualitative case study method allows us to conduct in-depth and detailed analysis, but has thin generalizability. To address this limitation, future research can use a survey covering various industries to test the proposed theory that has resulted from this study, so that the generalizability can be assured.

Identifying Digital Transformation Paths in the Business Model of SMEs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid growth of digital technologies and the extraordinary amount of data that devices and applications collect each day are increasingly driving companies to radically transform the business a

/pdf/implementing-a-digital-strategy-learning-from-the-experience-4ee1vo2uds.pdf

Maximilian Wäger

Papers

Building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation: An ongoing process of strategic renewal