Smart City Gnosys
Smart city article details
| Title | Uncovering Organization Emergent Digital Transformation Strategies To Deal With Crises: A Review Of Bibliometric Analyses And Of A European Initiative |
|---|---|
| ID_Doc | 59418 |
| Authors | Ziozias C.; Tsagalis A.; Anthopoulos L. |
| Year | 2024 |
| Published | Journal of Sustainability Research, 6, 3 |
| DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.20900/jsr.20240041 |
| Abstract | Digital transformation has become a strategic priority for the enterprises, the public organizations, and the cities. However, it remains unanswered whether business and city digital transformation strategies emerged mainly during the Covid-19 pandemic or independently while it is questioned whether organizations and cities that prioritized digital transformation before the epidemic had updated their strategies to deal with the outbreak. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the types of emergent digital transformation strategies that were caused both to the local business ecosystems and to cities due to the pandemic. This study uses a multi-method approach, including bibliometric analyses of more than 30,000 records that were produced during the outbreak to determine the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on the business and city digital transformation strategies. Findings uncover the digital transformation emergent strategic changes and highlight important trends, like the migration of the production supply chains with digital transformation. Moreover, this article uses the case study method on the European Intelligent Cities Challenge initiative, via analyzing the digital transformation strategies of the 120 participating cities, which had defined their digital transformation strategic priorities before the outbreak. The analysis shows that the pandemic did not significantly caused emergent digital transformation strategies. In general, this article’s findings do not prove a causal relationship between the pandemic and city/organization digital transformation strategies but provide some useful evidence about the emergent strategic responses that are triggered by crises like the epidemic. Background: This article explores the emergence and updates of digital transformation strategies (emergent digital transformation strategies) of businesses and cities due to the covid-19 outbreak. Methods: A multi-method research methodology was followed: bibliometric analyses of more than 30,000 records and the in-depth analysis of the most cited articles of them (more than 50) that were published during the outbreak (not after its completion) and on the case study of the large-scale European intiative of Intelligence Cities Challenge (ICC) (more than 120 cities in Europe). Results: (a) In terms of business emergent digital transformation strategies: (1) the enterprises adopted agile marketing techniques for their entrance to new digital markets and for the development of new digital products; (2) the enterprises prioritized digital transformation and the definition of sustainable business models; (3) the enterprises adopted emerging ICT (i.e., AI, bigdata and analytics) to measure organizational performance and predict market demands; (4) the enterprises moved their production lines closer to their suppliers and customers. (b) in terms of city emergent digital transformation strategies: (1) cities are being transformed to smart service providers and generate new types of digital values, via digital platforms and service co-creation with their citizens; (2) cities utilized their digital assets to share knowledge with innovation producers, they focused on their communities’ digital upskilling, while they adopted emerging ICT (i.e., AI, big data and IoT) to enhance their utility services; (3) cities recognized the importance of their digital transformation for enhancing their resilience and they rapidly trusted the ICT and encouraged the development of ethical ecosystems; (4) the evidence from the ICC showed that only the 65.5 (80 out of the 122 cities) percent of the participating cities managed to define their DT strategies, none revised its strategic objectives in the face of the pandemic, while only the 15 percent of them (12 out of the 80 cities) prioritized objectives relative to the pandemic or launched corresponding initiatives; (5) some ICT-based measures that the cities undertook to deal with the pandemic were uncovered with the ICC (i.e., digital surveillance, smart tourism etc.). Conclusions: The above results show how the businesses and the city governments responded with emergent digital transformation strategies to the Covid-19 pandemic, beyond dealing this liquidity issues and gaining access to government funds. These outcomes can be utilized for future estimations about business and city responses to crises like the outbreak, while future thoughts concern comparing these results with evidence from post-pandemic analyses. Copyright © 2024 by the author(s). |
| Author Keywords | business; Covid-19; digital transformation; emergent strategy; intelligent cities; smart cities; strategy |
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