传统企业数字化转型过程与机制探索性研究

   数字化转型已经成为当前很多传统企业的战略选择。然而,已有文献对数字化转型的过程与内在机理缺乏深入研究。借助科技给予与意义建构理论视角,通过对典型企业——双星集团的案例研究,文章对数字化转型的过程与内在机理进行了探索性分析。文章发现传统企业的数字化转型是一个自上而下的过程,包含转型发起、形成共识与转型实现三个阶段。在每一个阶段,由行为主体和数字化技术形成的二元结构是数字化转型给予形成（即阶段性转型认知）的社会基础。文章进一步揭示了支撑企业转型的四种数字转型给予,包括：数字化战略给予、共享的数字化战略给予、数字化业务战略给予与数字化业务战略实现。意义建构是促进转型给予形成的主要机制;意义解构和意义给赋是高层次主体影响低层主体意义建构的主要方式,也是实现过程转换的主要机制。文章打开了数字化转型过程黑箱,对IT驱动的组织转型研究和相关理论进行了有效补充,也为我国传统企业转型与新旧动能转换提供了有益借鉴。

An exploratory study of the processes and mechanisms of the digital transformation of traditional companies

   Digital transformation is defined as the use of new digital technologies to enable strategic changes in organizations. Companies, particularly those in traditional industries, now are increasingly considering digital transformation as a strategic way to deal with the dynamic environment and to gain strategic advantages. Although a variety of diversified organizations have attempted to achieve organizational transformation by leveraging new digital technologies, this phenomenon of digital transformation has remained surprisingly unnoticed in the literature. In particular, we know very little on the processes and inherent mechanisms of digital transformation in these companies in traditional industries. These knowledge gaps may account for the difficulties encountered by most companies in traditional industries when considering digital transformation.  To fill these knowledge voids in the literature, this study conducts an explorative analysis on the processes and the underlying mechanisms of digital transformation via a longitudinal case study on a typical company in traditional industries-Double Star Group (DSG). After nearly going bankruptcy in 2012, DSG started a journey of fulfilling the second undertaking by primarily leveraging digital technologies (including information technology, the Internet of things, cloud computing, robotics, etc.) to instigate managerial innovations, business model innovations and organizational transformation, and now it has evolved into an international enterprise group with the integration of tire manufacturing, smart equipment, smart logistics (e.g. Robot) and smart cyclic utilization of wasted rubber. The results of the digital transformation at DSG are evident: not only has its profit ratio significantly been improved, but also it has been listed in the Asia′s 500 Most Influential Brands and the China′s 500 Most Valuable Brands for three consecutive years.  By applying technology affordance theory and sensemaking theory to the phenomenon of digital transformation and the case analysis, this study uncovers that the digital transformation of traditional companies is a top-down process, including three phases, e.g., the initialization of transformation, the consensus formation of transformation and the actualization of transformation. In each phase, the perceived digital strategic affordance for transformation (i.e., transformation cognition for each phase) arises from the dual social structure composed by both actors and digital technology. This study then further reveals four digital affordances that enable organizational transformation, including the perceived digital strategic affordance, the shared digital strategic affordance, the perceived digital business affordance and the actualized digital business affordance. Sensemaking is the primary mechanism to enable the formation of digital affordance that supports organizational transformation in each phase. Sense-breaking and sense-giving are the primary mechanisms for the actors in higher organizational levels to influence the sensemaking of the actors in lower organizational levels, and thereby, they are the primary mechanisms that enable the process transition in digital transformation.    This study reveals the processes of digital transformation for traditional companies and offers deep understandings on the underlying relations among actors, digital technologies and transformation cognitions, providing three contributions to existing research. First, the top-down processual perspective not only helps to provide detailed description and deep explanations to the complex phenomenon, but also is helpful to analyze the conditions and transmitting mechanisms for each phase. Thus, this paper opens the black box of digital transformation processes conducted by the traditional companies, making good complements to the IT-enabled organizational transformation research. Second, existing research that adopted technology affordance theory focused on team and individual level; however, this research rarely paid attention to the strategic level. This study indicates that the dual actor-digital technology social structure acts as the foundation of digital transformation, and thereby expands technology affordance theory to the strategic research. The digital affordances enabling organization transformation identified in this study, e.g. the perceived digital strategic affordance, could be used as the constructs to be explored by future studies. Third, this study suggests that digital transformation is significantly different from the IT-enabled organizational transformation. In the digital context, the digital technology begins to fuse with the organizational strategy. This fusion thus embodies not only in the dual actor-digital technology structure, but also in the proactive role of actors in making sense of the potentials of digital technologies in enabling transformation.    This study also offers two managerial implications for practitioners. First, for government agencies that make polices, this study indicates that digital technologies are the major transformative forces that enable organizational transformation, as well as the new and old kinetic energy conversion in our country. Thus, when making policies and guidance, government agencies should think highly of the effects of transforming, leading and fusing of digital technologies, and guide traditional companies to conduct digital transformation via subsidies, demonstration promotion, etc. Second, this study reveals that digital transformation is a top-down process with a gradual improvement, following the path from the strategic cognition by the initiator to the collective and shared cognition by the key actors to the collective cognition by the actors in the operational level. This study then offers the top managers of traditional companies a reference process model that will guide their practices for digital transformation. Digital transformation should pay more attention to the leadership framework and the top-level design, as well as the relationships between digital technologies and human actors in organizations.