Digital Transformation in Business and Society

Theory and Cases

Babu George, Justin Paul, Babu George, Justin Paul

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783030082772
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Gestione dell'informazione
• Index: Business

The digital traces that people leave behind as they conduct their daily lives provide a powerful resource for businesses to better understand the dynamics of an otherwise chaotic society. Digital technologies have become omnipresent in our lives and we still do not fully know how to make the best use of the data these technologies could harness. Businesses leveraging big data appropriately could definitely gain a sustainable competitive advantage. With a balanced mix of texts and cases, this book discusses a variety of digital technologies and how they transform people and organizations. It offers a debate on the societal consequences of the yet unfolding technological revolution and proposes alternatives for harnessing disruptive technologies for the greater benefit of all. This book will have wide appeal to academics in technology management, strategy, marketing, and human resource management.

© The Author(s) 2020

B. George, J. Paul (eds.)Digital Transformation in Business and Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-08277-2_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Babu George¹

(1)

Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS, USA

Babu George

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

TechnologyGlobalizationCultureTransformationDataSocietyEducationChangeSustainability

End Abstract

Introduction

Businesses are being transformed in fundamental ways as a result of the data revolution and societal drivers of change (Aral, Dellarocas, & Godes, 2013). The new era inaugurated by digital 2.0 technologies created a discontinuity and a fundamental shift in our ideas of business and society. Fundamental concepts that constituted the definitional parameters of business are undergoing a re-definition process. Technological revolutions brought to us increase in processing power, bandwidth, user-friendly interfaces with technology, the ‘internet of things’, to list a few benefits. Also, we live in a society that loves to consume radical change. These drivers together have transformed our situated existence in the human society (Uhl & Gollenia, 2016). For businesses, these changes mean the blurring of industry boundaries, modular business architectures, distributed innovation micro-structures, ‘just-in-time’ definitions of business performance, among others.

Most major businesses in our times are in the business of transforming themselves by the power of data and the technological assets that make it possible for them to use the data in the best possible ways (Matt, Hess, & Benlian, 2015). Systematic improvement in business performance is achieved by means of re-engineering every aspect of the firm, including its external relationships, with technologies that promise scope and scale enhancements and also flexibility to create new business models (Davidson, 1993). There is a widespread realization that the path to competitive advantage is through data (McAfee, Brynjolfsson, Davenport, Patil, & Barton, 2012). In this backdrop, this volume brings together different perspectives from experts on how the data revolution has shaped different regions, industries, and domains. The authors in this volume have identified and distinguished the driving forces that make radical shifts in our society and businesses possible.

The Digital Transformation of Businesses and Societies

Knowledge has gained predominantly as a factor in contemporary consumption (Antons, Joshi, & Salge, 2018). Consumers are eager to be part of the knowledge sharing process—they co-create what they consume. In many situations, the boundaries between the buyers and the sellers are now permeant, observe Ranjan and Read (2016). Also, since most of the purchases are made online, it is vital to provide these consumers sensory experiences as close to what they would get while visiting brick and mortar shops. There is huge scope for innovation in this area and digital technologies fueled by the power of big data could provide the main lever for the same (Caputo, Evangelista, Perko, & Russo, 2017).

On the one hand, we have some evidence to support the claim that the digital revolution has helped us improve not just our business enterprises but our overall standard of living as a community of people, around the world. On the other hand, constant disruptions in the technology sphere need individuals and societies to pace up relentlessly. The digital divide is stark in certain regions of the world and also in certain demographic groups. Governments and the civil society have to come up with ways and means to bring the digital have-nots up to speed. This could be achieved by means of a combination of education, training, and other incentives. The private sector’s role in this regard should be examined more, too.

Digital revolution has impacted and transformed almost every realm of human affairs (Makridakis, 2017). So, almost every current topic on business and society will have a certain aspect of it. When we look at issues with a thin focus, it is natural to see certain things as outliers. However, technology myopia encountered by their leaders has caused many businesses their very survival and we need to be mindful about unduly limiting the scope of the digital revolution (Vega-Jurado, Juliao-Esparragoza, Paternina-Arboleda, & Velez, 2015). It is impossible to make sense of our contemporary life without referencing it with technologies that laced the fabric of it (Brooke, 2016).

Will people work in the future? No, especially if we continue to define work the way we do it now (Cook, 2017). Are we ready for the new kind of work? What characteristics will define human workers and how will these be able to give them a competitive advantage over the robots? Will artificial intelligence evolve to the extent of making humans entirely replaceable in the workplace? These are but a sample from the cross section of the questions that futurists pose (Aronowitz, 1994; Collin & Young, 2000; Stiegler, 2018). These questions cannot be avoided when we discuss business implications of the fourth industrial revolution.

That said, for practical reasons, this volume needed to be delimited to certain key dimensions of it. The diagram given below is an attempt to distill the characteristic themes that the chapters contained in this volume represent. This is by no means an exhaustive or mutually exclusive list of themes. Several chapters cut across the theme boundaries—which, again, is a characteristic feature of the seamlessly networked lives of the digital natives that we are.

The key themes included in this volume are represented in Fig. 1.1.

Fig. 1.1

Key themes included in this volume

A Brief Overview of the Chapters

Human ecological systems will not be the way we are currently familiar with them, as a result of our ability to manipulate big data (Graham & Shelton, 2013; Hampton et al., 2013). Ecology will not remain an esoteric pursuit, too. In the chapter titled ‘Human Flourishing in Smart Cities’, Maria Lai-Ling Lam calls for the importance of the development of enlightened citizens, rather than consumers, as the guardians of the smart cities managed by data-driven systems. As observed by Blagojević and Tufegdžić (2016), while technologies are disrupters, they also help preserve and refresh heritage of our geographical areas. ‘The Making of Data Driven Sustainable Smart City Communities in Holiday Destinations’ by Sudipta Kiran Sarkar, Michalis Toanoglu, and Babu George explains how data-centered technologies create smart and sustainable destinations for travelers. These chapters recognize the need for understanding digital technologies and data-driven systems as foundations of sustainable urban spaces.

Management of knowledge has gained a new meaning, as a result of our increased abilities to see insights in big data (Ding, Wang, & Wu, 2013). The industrial revolution 4.0 has brought in its associated phase of knowledge management 4.0 (Neumann, 2018). Asha Thomas and Meenu Chopra in their chapter ‘On How Big Data Revolutionizes Knowledge Management’ elaborate on this. To be able to see patterns as an emergent phenomenon needed newer heuristics and ways of thinking (Lv, Song, Basanta-Val, Steed, & Jo, 2017).

Social media is the frontline poster boy of digital transformation as the layman knows it. Social media strategy, more than social media technologies, drives the digital transformation directions of a vast majority of our organizations, observe Kane, Palmer, Phillips, Kiron, and Buckley (2015). While planning to revamp businesses through digital transformation, social media strategy cannot be let to the periphery (Westerman & Bonnet, 2015). Social media has become a central means by which to engage with the digital natives accustomed to this, and the decentralized nature of the social media makes engagement a complex enterprise (Stiver, Barroca, Minocha, Richards, & Roberts, 2015). The chapter ‘Social Media Technologies and Export Marketing’ by Frederick Avornyo et al. highlights aspects of it, in the particular context of changes in the age-old practice of exporting. Ogechi Adeola, Robert Ebo Hinson, and Olaniyi Evans, in their chapter ‘Social Media in Marketing Communications: A Synthesis of Successful Strategies for the Digital Generation’, take a broader view and offer a synthesis of strategies for the digital generation.

Analytics is the backbone of what could be called a learning society (Larson & Chang, 2016). There is no exaggeration if someone calls it the religion of the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Human Flourishing in Smart Cities
• 3. On How Big Data Revolutionizes Knowledge Management
• 4. Social Media in Marketing Communications: A Synthesis of Successful Strategies for the Digital Generation
• 5. Social Media Technologies and Export Marketing
• 6. Data Analytics and Predictive Analytics: How Technology Fits into the Equation
• 7. Effective Engagement of Digital Natives in the Ever-Transforming Digital World
• 8. Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and the Evolving Nature of Work
• 9. The Dark Side of Big Data: Personal Privacy, Data Security, and Price Discrimination
• 10. Digital Finance for Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth
• 11. Understanding Consumer Behavior in Technology-Mediated Spaces
• 12. An Evaluation of the National Open Government Data (OGD) Portal of the United Arab Emirates
• 13. Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology in the Hospitality Industry: Current Applications and Future Trends
• 14. Risk Management in the Digital Era: The Case of Nigerian Banks
• 15. Digital Technology to Enhance Project Leadership Practice: The Case of Civil Construction
• 16. The Making of Data-Driven Sustainable Smart City Communities in Holiday Destinations
• Back Matter