Contextual impacts on industrial processes brought by the digital transformation of manufacturing: a systematic review

The digital transformation of manufacturing (a phenomenon also known as "Industry 4.0" or "Smart Manufacturing") is finding a growing interest both at practitioner and academic levels, but is still in its infancy and needs deeper investigation. Even though current and potential advantages of digital manufacturing are remarkable, in terms of improved efficiency, sustainability, customization, and flexibility, only a limited number of companies has already developed ad hoc strategies necessary to achieve a superior performance. Through a systematic review, this study aims at assessing the current state of the art of the academic literature regarding the paradigm shift occurring in the manufacturing settings, in order to provide definitions as well as point out recurring patterns and gaps to be addressed by future research. For the literature search, the most representative keywords, strict criteria, and classification schemes based on authoritative reference studies were used. The final sample of 156 primary publications was analyzed through a systematic coding process to identify theoretical and methodological approaches, together with other significant elements. This analysis allowed a mapping of the literature based on clusters of critical themes to synthesize the developments of different research streams and provide the most representative picture of its current state. Research areas, insights, and gaps resulting from this analysis contributed to create a schematic research agenda, which clearly indicates the space for future evolutions of the state of knowledge in this field

Customer Participation in Digital Transformation, Value Co-Creation and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study in China Information Communication & Technology Industry

The role of customer participation is an important area in service marketing research. Increasingly more enterprises encourage customers to participate in the service production and delivery processes, stimulate customers to share innovative ideas, and promote a greater role for customers through participation. Although some research has acknowledged the importance of customer participation in creating knowledge and value for enterprises, it has ignored the uncertainty and the complexity that customer participation may bring. Most scholars study customer participation only in a broad sense without examining how to effectively manage customer participation. To address this existing research deficiency, this study uses service-oriented logic, digital transformation theory, value co-creation theory, and corporate performance theory to examine how enterprises can promote customer participation in the process of digital transformation, co-create corporate value with customers, improve and influence the company's digital transformation maturity, and thus promote the company's performance growth (including environmental, economic, and relationship performance). Specifically, this study makes the following major contributions: 1. Based on the behaviour of customers participating in digital transformation, customer participation is divided into four dimensions (information and knowledge exchange, business collaboration, co-leading, and cost-effectiveness) to understand the process of value co-creation, and to some extent, resolve the inconsistent views of customer participation in existing research. Most extant studies explore customer participation as a whole; such integrated research results in the loss of customer participation’s rich connotation and leads to differing opinions about the impact of customer participation. 2. Based on the theory of digital transformation and the theory of digital maturity model, this study primarily examines how to effectively guide and manage customers from the perspective of an operational management model and strategy. The existing research on value co-creation largely focuses on how external environmental factors influence value co-creation among enterprises. These factors are difficult for enterprises to control and control. 3. This study focuses on the co-creation results of traditional enterprise customers and Internet enterprise customers in the process of digital transformation, analyses and compares the different concerns of traditional enterprise customers and Internet enterprise customers on the value co-creation process, and provides effective and positive aid for future strategic planning regarding these two types of customers. The information communication technology industry in China is taken as this study’s research object; five representative enterprises are selected. First, 10 traditional enterprise customers, Internet enterprise customers, and industry experts are interviewed in-depth, and the questionnaire is collected. Second, 506 matching questionnaires for traditional enterprise customers and Internet enterprise customers were collected. Using structural equation modelling, this study examines the relationship between digital transformation and corporate value co-creation, as well as the intermediate role of digital maturity on digital transformation and corporate value co-creation. The empirical results support most of the assumptions, as follows: 1. Customer participation in digital transformation has a significantly positive impact on value co-creation (economic, innovation, and relationship value). 2. Value co-creation (economic, innovation, and relationship value) has a significantly positive impact on firm performance. 3. Digital transformation maturity has a significant moderating effect on the influence of value co-creation on firm performance. 4. Value co-creation has a mediating effect on the relationship between customer participation in digital transformation and firm performance

A capability maturity approach for construction process improvement: use of case studies approach

During the recent past, the effectiveness of process improvement strategies and the role of information technology have been discussed as a mechanism of achieving the performance improvements within the UK construction industry. However there are visible gaps within the current research status in process maturity and IT maturity studies in construction. This paper is based on an ongoing PhD research which is aiming at exploring the full potential of process capability and maturity approach and the role of IT as an enabler, as a method of improving the UK construction industry. In particular, this paper will concentrate on the methodological issues of the above study in justifying the applicability of the case study approach

eEnabled internet distribution for small and medium sized hotels: the case of hospitality SMEs in Athens

Advances in information and communications technologies (ICTs) have strategic implications for a wide range of industries. Tourism and hospitality have dramatically changed by the ICTs and the Internet and gradually emerge as the leading industry on online expenditure. The Internet revolutionised traditional distribution models, enabled new entries propelled both disintermediation and reintermediation and altered the sources of competitive advantage. This paper explores the strategic implications of ICTs and the perceived advantages and disadvantages of Internet distribution for small and medium-sized hospitality enterprises (SMEs). Primary research in Athens hotels demonstrates the effects of the Internet and ICTs for secondary markets, where there is lower penetration and ICT adoption. Interviews and questionnaires identified a number of strategies in order to optimise distribution. The analysis illustrates the strategic role of ICTs and the Internet for hospitality organisations and Small and Medium-sized organisations in general. Most hotels employ a distribution mix that determines the level and employment of the Internet. The paper demonstrates that only organisations that use ICTs strategically will be able to develop their electronic distribution and achieve competitive advantages in the future

Entrepreneurship, Entry and Exit in Creative Industries: an explorative Survey

Series: Creative Industries in Vienna: Development, Dynamics and Potential

Unlocking the digital organization : a view of the digital transformation capabilities

Digital transformation is a complex process enabled by the application of digital technologies that fundamentally change the business model of organizations, altering their ways of capturing and generating value, their organizational processes, routines, sources of revenue, and resources. It is such a pressing phenomenon in the current context (accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic) that all organizations will be impacted and will have to deal with it sooner or later. Thus, to understand the mechanisms that assist organizations in creating strategic conditions for successful transformations, this thesis focuses on the phenomenon and seeks a deep understanding of the elements that compose it. Through a comprehensive and robust work that mixes qualitative methods (such as systematic review and multiple case studies) with quantitative methods (such as EFA and PLS), the thesis presents significant and impactful results. Among them are (i) the proposition of a Digital Transformation Dynamic Capability framework and (ii) a subsequent capability-based maturity model, and (iii) the proposition of a model (statistically tested in SMEs) about the framework's antecedent factors. A distinct point of this theoretical proposition is the use of dynamic capabilities lens for the framework organization - allowing the understanding of the phenomenon as a process to be continuously pursued. Thus, the main contributions lie in a comprehensive and original approach that can guide organizations to articulate and develop the conditions to unlock the capability to digitally transform their business model - which can lead to a capacity for continuous change in the digital context. Furthermore, it offers robust and timely research whose models condense a knowledge corpus from which future research can benefit

Product Lifecycle Management: Measuring What Is Important - Product Lifecycle Implementation Maturity Model

Industry reports that benefits of PLM are difficult to assess because the same benefit can be expressed as a function of time, cost, quality, or any combination. Based on a review of the PLM literature in an earlier study, a PLM Process Model and an initial list of PLM related metrics was generated and later confirmed through interviews with experienced PLM users. In the current study, the original PLM Process Model was refined and the list of metrics was subjected to an exploratory factor analysis in which specific metrics were found to be related to one of four factors: Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Outcomes. Based on the results of this study, a Product Lifecycle Implementation Maturity Model was developed that serves as a program-level guide in helping to quantify PLM performance in support of meeting organizational strategic goals