The right digital strategy for your business: an empirical analysis of the design and implementation of digital strategi
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The right digital strategy for your business: an empirical analysis of the design and implementation of digital strategies in SMEs and LSEs Wolfgang Becker1 • Oliver Schmid1
Received: 18 October 2019 / Accepted: 25 August 2020 The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The importance of digitalization continues to grow, with companies from all sectors and of various sizes subject to this influence. To remain competitive in the future, companies must recognize and overcome the opportunities and challenges of digitalization in the long term. To do this, companies can develop an entire digitization strategy that affects all areas of the business, enabling them to achieve a holistic digital transformation and ensure their survival in the digital age. Based on a qualitative–empirical research design, this study examines whether small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises (LSEs) have such a strategy, and how it is structured. In particular, it addresses the use of new technology, changes in value added, structural changes and the financing of digitalization. At the same time, there is an examination of any similarities and differences among the different company sizes. Keywords Digital strategy SME LSE
1 Introduction Since the era of the post-dotcom decade, technological change and the associated digitalization have become increasingly important (Haffke 2017). These new technological developments have not influenced individual companies or specific industries (Westermann et al. 2012; Haffke et al. 2016; Hess et al. 2016; Laumer et al. 2016; Sia et al. 2016), but, in combination with ever-changing customer needs, & Oliver Schmid [email protected] Wolfgang Becker [email protected] 1
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Business Research
have had, and are having, an impact on the economy and society as a whole (Diamandis 2015; Haffke et al. 2016]. Ultimately, these changing customer needs and customer behaviors are critical to any business, as customers increasingly expect customized products, services and new, unique customer experiences (Vey et al. 2017). Conversely, for businesses, this means that they have ‘‘to adapt their business infrastructure to the new digital era’’ (Bharadwaj et al. 2013, p. 472), which means that they must adapt their entire value chain to the new technology and digital requirements since the nature of value added has evolved (Porter and Heppelmann 2015; Klo¨tzer and Pflaum 2017). This shows that in the future companies will have to develop business models that differentiate them from their current business models, and those of their competitors, by integrating and using new technologies to ensure the successful survival of companies in the digital future (Bharadwaj et al. 2013; Hess et al. 2016; Vey et al. 2017; Becker et al. 2018). In order for companies to tap into their full value-creation potential in times of digitalization, they need a clearly defined strategic orientation, by which future (digital) business models can be implemented. Wh
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