Digital transformation and organizational implications

Digital technologies surround us. Some technologies, such as platforms, help us book our holidays, others, like apps, transform our appearance, and more sophisticated technology, such as artificial intelligence, even translates texts for us. With that in mind, it seems almost unbelievable that there are yet areas in our lives that are not digital but require pen and paper. This dissertation aims to gain a better understanding of the ongoing digital transformation of organizations, with a specific focus on the following aspects: (1) understand what digital transformation is and how it affects firms, (2) shed light on the business value implications and contingencies in the SME context, and (3) to unravel different actions on how firms may deal with institutional pressure. Chapter 2 addresses the conceptual nature of digital transformation through a literature review and provides a process model for different stages of digital change and insights on transforming from the analog world into a digitally transformed organization. Chapter 3 deals with the business value implications of digital transformation for small to medium firms (SMEs) by focusing on the pressure between doing radically different activities and overcoming established routines is provided. Chapter 4 takes a broader perspective on the institutional arrangement and how digital transformation may promote legitimacy challenges. Finally, Chapter 5 ties everything together, presents a general discussion of the different studies and their outcomes, explores managerial and societal implications, and offers future research directions

The selection of high-skilled migrants

We measure selection of high-skilled migrants from Germany using predicted earnings. Migrants to less equal countries are positively selected relative to non-migrants, while migrants to more equal countries are negatively selected, consistent with the prediction in Borjas (1987). Positive selection to less equal countries is driven by university quality and grades, and negative selection to more equal countries by university subject and gender. Migrants to the U.S. are highly positively selected and concentrated in STEM fields. Our results highlight the relevance of the Borjas model for high-skilled individuals when credit constraints and other migration barriers are unlikely to be binding

Many Roads Lead to Digital Transformation: A Configurational Perspective on Digital Competence Elements

Organizations need to develop digital competences to utilize digital technologies to succeed in digital transformation. Yet, current efforts on organizational strategies to develop digital competences, i.e., digital M&A or appointing a CDO, have been conducted in isolation. However, following digital ecodynamics, material, organizational and environmental factors are in fact interwoven. We aim to cater to this confluence by taking a configurational perspective on digital competence development and its effect on digital transformation. We integrate prior findings of digital competence on (1) the firm level and the role of knowledge resources, (2) the leadership level and competence of the firm’s upper echelon, and (3) the role of contextual complexities in the form of the firm’s environment and structure. Subsequently, we employ fsQCA on a unique dataset. Thereby, we disentangle the multifaceted complexity of digital transformation and provide more fine-grained conceptual insights into the phenomena