Barriers to Digital Transformation

A case study of a chemical B2B company

Master thesis (2019)

Authors

A. Krishnamurthy Technology, Policy and Management

Contributors

I.R. van de Poel Values Technology and Innovation (mentor)
Z. Roosenboom-Kwee Economics of Technology and Innovation - TPM (mentor)
T. Krapfl (graduation committee member)
P. Molteni (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Technology, Policy and Management, Technology, Policy and Management
Copyright: © 2019 Anusha Krishnamurthy
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Published Date

29-10-2019

Language

English

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Faculty

Technology, Policy and Management

Abstract

Digital transformation is taking place all around and there is hardly anything has not been affected (Reddy & Reinartz, 2017). It is reshaping a wide range of activities, influences the way we work, our communication and our consumer behaviors (Piccinini, Hanelt, R.W., & L.M., 2015). Benefits are less visible in certain situations, but a lot of administrative processes can be automated or digitized and manual labour can be reduced (Salo, 2006). In a business context, digital tools are widely adopted as ERP, CRM and e-business solutions, however some, like e-business exhibit a significant gap between adoption and widespread adoption use (Zhu, Dong, Xu, & Kraem, 2006). Various theories predict the adoption of technologies such as innovation diffusion, TAM and TOE Framework, but there is a gap in digital transformation literature that depicts the barriers to digital transformation, particularly taking into consideration its nature as a discontinuous change process that holistically transforms its people, organization, structure, in the pursuit of value creation (Henriette, Feki, & Boughzala, 2016). Furthermore, the chemical B2B industry has garnered a reputation for being a latecomer industry (Koehn, 2018). New startups have begun to enter the market where they leverage platform e-commerce services to lower prices and retain cost advantages, where large incumbent companies hesitate to try digital channels.