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Current research on the relationship between digital transformation and financial performance (FP) remains inconclusive. This paper conceptualizes digital transformation as technology-based digital transformation (TDT) and market-based digital transformation (MDT), and explores their heterogeneous impacts on FP. It is further assessed how such distinctive effects are moderated by three types of entrepreneurs' social capital, i.e. entrepreneurs' technological social capital (ETSC), entrepreneurs' business social capital (EBSC), and entrepreneurs' institutional social capital (EISC). Using a carefully assembled dataset containing the relevant information of 2363 listed Chinese manufacturing firms covering the period of 2008–2018, these relationships are empirically examined, and the following is found: (1) TDT positively affects FP; (2) MDT has a time-lagged positive effect on FP; (3) ETSC positively moderates the relationship between MDT and FP; (4) EBSC positively moderates the impacts of TDT and MDT on FP. These findings enrich the understanding of the concept and application of digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, digital technologies have become ubiquitous, impacting and changing the ways society operates. Immense public and economic value is being created by improving access to information and resources. Hence, many public administration units around the globe continue to focus on digital transformation. Although mostly associated with digitizing services and workflow via software platforms, India's efforts have taken a "Lego building block approach" toward technology which can be repurposed and recombined to deliver solutions at the social level. These digital public infrastructure (DPI) blocks have had significant impact on socio-economic development. In this special issue, we explore the role of DPI in digitally transforming public service delivery and in creating public value. The issue aims to make an important contribution to public administration and digital government literature, by examining India's DPI and its positive externalities, in particular its role in financial and health inclusion. These papers include vital knowledge that can support policy processes on digital transformation and public value creation for India and other developing countries of the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before and aftermath of COVID-19 has created multiple waves of digital transformation adoption in supply chain management. The power of potential benefits is realised as a multitude however the transformation phases are not sustainable. This editorial special issue has edited papers of scholarly research contributions to the theory and practice of digital transformation aspects in the field of logistics and supply chain management. Based on the summary of each contribution and an extended literature review on the theme, this editorial paper proposes a novel framework that could facilitate the logistics industry at times of disruptive technologies when firms are struggling to cope with the challenges created due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the data of Chinese A-share listed companies to study whether enterprise digital transformation will affect the labor income share. The research results show that enterprise digital transformation greatly increasing the labor income share, and our inferences unchanged after a wide battery of robustness tests. Further studies show that the mechanism of digital transformation to increase labor income share is to expand the scale of employment and increase the proportion of highly skilled labor in the total labor force. Subsample study shows that digital transformation only raises the labor income share of larger scale and higher competitive position enterprises. The research can provide policy references for developing digital economy and improving development quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing trade volumes and more stringent regulations, digital transformation (DT) is crucial for container lines to keep abreast with the new trends in the container shipping industry. The objective of this research is to theoretically identify the crucial success elements for DT in container lines by evaluating four main theories: (1) innovation diffusion theory, (2) resource-based view theory, (3) stakeholder theory, and (4) competence motivation theory. Accordingly, the CSFs identified were 'stakeholder expectations', 'organisational competency', 'technology acceptance', and 'individual motivation'. A survey was then crafted and handed out to major container lines. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) was then conducted to analyse the collected data. The results show that organisational competency is the most important CSF, followed by technology acceptance, stakeholders' expectations, and individual motivation. The top three sub-CSFs are financial stability, regulatory bodies' expectations, and digital readiness. This research paper contributes to theory and management practices by providing a holistic theoretical framework to identify and rank the CSFs of DT in container lines. Overall, this research paper enriches current literature on the DT of container lines and offers new insights into container lines in the CSFs in the implementation of DT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses three case studies of early science museum-related websites in the 1990s and early 2000s, when web technology was still relatively new and evolving. The Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC) was a completely virtual museum, originally produced in 1995 as part of the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp), an international online museum directory within the WWW Virtual Library, adopted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The Science Museum in London was one of the first museums in the United Kingdom to have its own web server. The museum hosted an early meeting on web service provision by and for museums, concurrently with an exhibition on the Information Superhighway at the museum in 1995. Exhiblets were launched online in 1998. Ingenious was a multi-site digital collections transformation project, launched as a website in 2003. Virtual Leonardo and Leonardo's Ideal City were two experiments conducted by the digital team of the Science and Technology Museum of Milan, between 1999 and 2001. The experiment consisted of the creation of a shared online 3D world, namely a reconstruction of the real museum in the first case and a completely imaginary world in the second case. This paper describes the above three case studies from the early World Wide Web and then draws some conclusions, from first-hand experience of developments at the time. We cover both the advantages and the challenges encountered by the various projects and illustrate why they did not necessarily become established, despite promising early results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies are now part of our daily lives, and the speed of their implementation and use has been accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital transformation, seen in the past as a problem, is now perceived as an important component in the future of sustainable development (SD), especially at higher education institutions whose operations have been adversely affected by the pandemic in many ways. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the subject matter of digital transformation and how it relates to a SD context. It reports on the results of a worldwide survey at higher education institutions, which identified some areas where the pandemic impacted and/or influenced their activities. The survey received 158 responses and a principal component analysis was performed to model the items associated with digital tools boosting SD, innovative business opportunities and ideas, and needs for improvement at HEIs. The results indicate that most part of the respondents developed digital skills and increased their involvement with e-learning and distance learning; however, more digital training is needed. Findings also support the role played by digital technologies in boosting SD at HEIs, and the role of institutions in promoting innovation through digital tools. Apart from an analysis of the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to digital transformation in an SD context in higher education institutions, the paper provides an assessment of trends and recommendations that may guide future developments in a post-pandemic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support adequate strategic decisions, every digital transformation begins with an analysis of the current state of the company. These analyses often include the use of digital maturity models (DMMs). There are numerous DMMs in a wide variety of industries and application areas. While most of these models primarily address the digital maturity of manufacturing companies as a whole, only a few DMMs focus on particular departments or processes. Thus, there is a research gap in this field of study. This paper contributes to the identified gap by developing a DMM for the sales process in B2B project business. Building on a literature review that identified and examined specific DMMs which have been developed in the B2B context, we conducted a case study using expert interviews at a large German industrial company to develop a DMM of the different phases of the sales process. This DMM shall contribute to the research of maturity models and guide companies of different industries in their digital transformation activities focusing on the digitalization of their sales process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums have widely used digital technologies to expand their societal and cultural impact. In terms of their use of information technologies (IT), museums have evolved from initial experiments in the 1950s to a significant online presence today. In the process of digital transformation, museums have shaped their digital identity, aiming to expand their activities beyond museum walls with emerging new roles in the digital era. The concept of museums' digital identity is the focus of this paper. To articulate the concept, the theory of digital identity, the methodology of web history, the concept of virtual museums, and museum branding, are brought into consideration. The author articulates the concept of museums' digital identity and outlines a number of components at the collective and individual levels embodied in national strategies and policy documents relating to digital transformation, articulated in statements by museum associations, revealed in features of their online presence, and embedded in brand design. In the conclusion, the author raises questions about the driving force of museums in developing digital identity and the need to comprehensively analyse the multiplatform museum presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pace of corporate digital transformation has been accelerating all over the world. This paper investigates the impact of digital transformation on corporate fraud with probit model in Chinese scenario. The results show that the digital transformation of enterprises can help curb the occurrence of fraud in general. However, the heterogeneity test results suggest that the application of digital technology may increase the possibility of some types of fraud as well. Considering possible endogeneity issues, this paper checks the results with the methods of Heckman two-step model and IV probit model and the conclusion remains robust. The empirical results suggest that accelerating the digital transformation of enterprises will help improve the quality of enterprises, optimize the capital market environment, but it is very important to guard against delayed disclosure in digitalization era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fulfilment is a key driver for the digitalisation of the grocery sector and thus a major source of value creation. Although value creation is contingent on a multiplicity of contextual factors, extant research has mainly explored fulfilment in the generic realms of e-commerce and does not provide empirically grounded insights into the collective interplay of fulfilment attributes. Because e-grocery features unique exigencies and trade-offs that require non-generic theorisation, a functional and cross-domain perspective is required to comprehend the role of fulfilment in creating value in this sector. Following a multi-method approach, this paper combines a literature review with an empirical investigation of 111 e-grocers to produce three main outcomes. First, a conceptually-grounded and empirically-refined taxonomy to capture important decision attributes of e-grocery fulfilment. Second, six archetypes to indicate common combinations of these attributes. Third, a contingency model to disclose value relationships between attributes and outcome performance. Our results contribute to the body of knowledge on e-grocery value creation as well as the explanatory understanding of operational configurations and digital transformation conditions in this industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Live streaming technologies transform the information processing of customers by changing the way they interact with and acquire information. However, this emerging technological artefact may induce both positive and negative consequences for customer decision making. It is yet unknown what constitutes the dimensions of the juxtaposed IT affordances and how they affect customer behaviours in this new social phenomenon. This paper contributes to IS research by uncovering the specific bright and dark sides of IT affordances in live streaming e-commerce and by explaining the cognitive mechanisms underpinning customer purchase and brand citizenship behaviours. We employed a sequential mixed-methods design to embrace and contextualise the theory of affordance, vicarious learning, and cognitive load to rigorously develop a theoretical framework of the juxtaposed IT affordance in live streaming e-commerce. The results indicate that positive affordances (e.g., interactivity, visibility, and entertainment) have stronger effects on both economic and non-economic value. However, the potential dark side (e.g., broadcasting and source diversity) has more negative effects on purchase intention than brand citizenship behaviour, underscoring the importance of involving customers in co-creating brand-related value in live streaming e-commerce. Our findings contribute considerably to the emerging literature on live streaming e-commerce and provide actionable recommendations for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions have always been changing concurrently with larger societal developments. This paper addresses digital transformation in higher education (DTHE) during a disruptive crisis, e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding different perspectives on DTHE during the pandemic is important, as the meaning allocated to the unfolding events holds the potential to shape future decision making. We conducted a critical review of 22 academic papers published in the first year of the pandemic. A thematic analysis revealed divergent perspectives of how the pandemic was affecting DTHE, with the material pointing in the direction of the pandemic as an accelerator of ongoing changes in higher education. The papers unanimously understood DTHE as multi-dimensional and as an ongoing, long-time process entangled with digital transformations in other sectors already initiated before the pandemic. Although this review is limited to research carried out during the first year of the pandemic, further studies might address a longer time-period, by studying changes in higher education and research in consequence of a disruptive crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 2021 Stavå bridge, a main bridge on E6 in Norway, was abruptly closed for traffic. A structural defect had seriously compromised the bridge's structural integrity. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) closed it, made a temporary solution and reopened with severe traffic restrictions. The incident was alerted through what constitutes the bridge's Digital Twin processing data from Internet of Things sensors. The solution was crucial in online and offline diagnostics, the case demonstrating the value of technologies to tackle emerging dangerous situations as well as acting preventively. A critical and rapidly developing damage was detected in time to stop the development, but not in time to avoid the incident altogether. The paper puts risk in a broader perspective for an organization responsible for highway infrastructure. It positions online monitoring and Digital Twins in the context of Risk- and Condition-Based Maintenance. The situation that arose at Stavå bridge, and how it was detected, analysed, and diagnosed during virtual inspection, is described. The case demonstrates how combining physics-based methods with Machine Learning can facilitate damage detection and diagnostics. A summary of lessons learnt, both from technical and organisational perspectives, as well as plans of future work, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global digital divide is sometime presented as the primary obstacle to developmental convergence between world regions. On the other hand mobile phone and internet technology are at times seen as transformative innovations that are dissolving this development divide. Through secondary data (such as on usage from Internet World Stats) and case exemplars, of mobile money and the gig economy, this paper argues that this is not the case; primarily because new information and communication technologies are used mostly for communication and consumption, rather than production, and if they are value capture is often low. Consequently the ‘digital divide’, and its partial dissolution, are perhaps better characterized as phases of an ‘ICT product consumption diffusion cycle’, facilitated by technological embedding and convergence. The paper provides background and substantiates this argument and then explores the potential for a deep digital transformation (DDT) in the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a digital transformation maturity self-assessment model. The main objective of this model is the diagnosis and the evaluation of the digital maturity of a hospital as a key main in the Moroccan pharmaceutical supply chain. A literature review was conducted for investigating digital maturity models and tools used. A total of 49 relevant works were retrieved, representing 49 distinct maturity models and tools in various domains. The works were inductively analysed, and the maturity model dimensions were extracted and consolidated into a Digital Maturity Assessment Model (DMAM). The resulting DMAM consisted of 4 dimensions: IT & Digital Technologies, Strategy & Processes Management, Human Resources & Culture, and Supply Chain & Patient Journeys Management. Each dimension is further divided into several sub-dimensions, totally 65 sub-dimensions are identified, that can be assessed by the 4 digital maturity levels proposed. The comparison of the proposed digital maturity dimensions and sub-dimensions with the existing models/tools shows a clear and important contribution in the field of digital transformation assessment: the introduction of a new dimension 'Supply Chain and Patient Management', that was developed in response to practitioner needs and organizational factors in pharmaceutical supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation serves as a crucial foundation for enterprises to achieve business and trade digitisation, as well as to drive industrial upgrading and high-quality economic development. This paper explores the impact and mechanism of the ‘Specialized and New’ policy on enterprise digital transformation, utilising the policy established in 2019 as a quasi-natural experiment and leveraging data from China’s A-share listed companies between 2017 and 2021. We employ difference-in-differences model to investigate the effects and underlying mechanisms of the ‘Specialized and New’ policy on digital transformation. Our results demonstrate that the ‘Specialized and New’ policy significantly promotes the process of enterprise digital transformation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the policy has a more pronounced effect on the digital transformation of non-state-owned enterprises, medium-sized enterprises, and enterprises with high management efficiency. In-depth mechanistic tests reveal that the ‘Specialized and New’ policy facilitates digital transformation through three pathways: enhancing research and development capabilities, introducing government subsidies, and reducing financing constraints. The policy is relatively new and less well researched, so the findings of this paper provide valuable insights and lessons for domestic and foreign policymakers, which can help in the replication of subsequent policies as well as the development and transformation of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes A-share listed companies during 2010–2021 as the research object, and finds that the digital transformation (DT) of enterprises affects investors’ trading behaviours; more specifically, the digital transformation of enterprises increases investor divergence. This paper also finds that external governance factors mitigate the impact of digital transformation on investor divergence; specifically, analyst tracking mitigates the impact of digital transformation on investor divergence by alleviating information asymmetry. As more professional investors, institutional investors have stronger information mining and analysis capabilities, so the impact of digital transformation on investor divergence could also be mitigated with the increase in the proportion of institutional investors. The intermediary mechanism test suggests that corporate digital transformation triggers investor divergence by increasing surplus volatility. Further research finds that, firstly, different approaches to digital transformation have different impacts, with digital transformation through self-developed technology being more likely to trigger investor divergence. Secondly, different firm natures have different impacts, with the digital transformation of non-high-tech firms having relatively greater impacts on investor divergence. Finally, the digital transformation of non-state-owned enterprises has greater impact on investor analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the provision of government services through electronic platforms has significantly increased due to the rapid development of digital technologies. The significant shift in digital governance is expected to have an effect on key macroeconomic variables through its speed, efficiency, and convenience. Therefore, this study empirically evaluates the effects of e-government development on foreign direct investment inflows by targeting sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The study covers the panel data of periods 2003–2022 for 44 SSA countries. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and econometric techniques with STATA 17 software. According to the System GMM model used in the study, e-government is a significant factor that positively affects FDI inflows, and scale neutral that significantly benefits both less growing and more growing economies. Furthermore, the result from threshold analysis shows that the positive effect of e-government on FDI inflows is influenced by the development of telecommunication infrastructure. The key insight for policy arising from this paper is that in addition to the macroeconomic factors, FDI inflows are affected by digital transformation and technology-augmented government services. Therefore, development interventions should emphasize the improvement of such institutional and technological systems to enhance FDI inflows to the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth Industrial Revolution is in full swing, the whole world is pondering the same question: Where is the core breakthrough? With the continuous breakthrough and extensive application of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other next-generation information technologies, One sign has emerged: digital economy is becoming a new driving force for global economic growth. The impact of digital transformation on enterprises is to improve the quality and efficiency、Improve information quality, Or spread out limited resources and reduce productivity, There is no consensus among academics. To fill that gap, this paper aims to sort out the internal mechanism of how digital transformation improves the output quality of the technological innovation of enterprises from a theoretical perspective, and to establish a digital transformation index at the micro level. On this basis, this study empirically examines how digital transformation affects the output quality of technological innovation.we adopts panel data. It uses data collected from 159 manufacturing enterprises in China. By adopting the methods of PLS structural equation and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), it empirically tests the research model and conducts a mediation analysis through regression analysis. The findings indicated that, Digital transformation can help manufacturing enterprises to improve the output quality of their technological innovation; digital infrastructure plays a significant mediating role between digital transformation and the output quality of technological innovation; the investment of manufacturing enterprises in software and hardware digital infrastructure have a positive impact on the output quality of technological innovation. There is a complementary relationship between the two. The paper was conducted in the context of Chinese culture and can be generalized to other Asian countries. We believe that the research conclusions of this study have important practical significance for how manufacturing enterprises can effectively carry out digital transformation and improve the output quality of technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital transformation is affecting museums. New technologies such as applications, beacons, QR codes, virtual guides, holograms, touchscreens, and augmented reality are commonly adopted. Although much research was conducted on how visitors perceived the adoption of new technologies by museums, little is known about the reaction of the staff. Individual predispositions such as resistance to change, AI anxiety, and attitudes towards robots were used as the independent variables. This paper presents the research conducted on 220 museum employees. The results suggest that museum staff react to the decision on the adoption of social robots cognitively, emotionally, and behaviourally. Negative cognitive reactions are elicited by earlier negative attitudes towards interactions with robots. Negative emotional reactions are associated with earlier negative attitudes towards interactions with robots and the fear of being replaced. Ultimately, behavioural reactions are elicited by all of the above along with the anxiety of learning new technological skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between subjective perception of economic policy uncertainty (SPEPU) and ESG performance. We find that SPEPU could deteriorate ESG performance, especially corporate social performance and that this negative effect works through increasing financialization and weakening internal control, but could be mitigated by enhancing digital transformation and improving financial flexibility. Heterogeneity analysis further confirms that this negative effect of SPEPU on ESG performance is more pronounced for enterprises with no political connections, less information transparency and low marketization. Our conclusions are of practical significance for enterprises to maintain good ESG performance and promote their sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality is one of the key factors in the customer's selection process between competing products. Producing high-quality, defect-free products that meet consumer expectations is crucial for manufacturing companies to gain a competitive advantage. Accordingly, developing appropriate defect generation models is essential in modern manufacturing companies to predict defects and plan efficient quality control and production. On the other hand, with its ability to support new business models and decision support systems, digital twin technology is one of the new technologies emerging to support digital transformation. Faster optimization algorithms, more powerful computers, and a massive increase in available data are just some of the features of digital twins that can be used to advance simulation toward real-time quality control and optimization of products and production systems. This paper aims to model the generation of defects of product variants in assembly and disassembly processes and evaluate their integration within a digital twin system to prevent the occurrence of defects and ensure product quality. The proposed strategy is expected to improve the optimization, monitoring, and diagnostic capabilities of complex product variants' assembly and disassembly systems, realizing an upgrade from a single physical implementation to a combination of physical and digital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic forced school leaders to rapidly adopt digital technologies, sparking new awareness and discussions about digital education and its transformation. Despite significant advances, these changes may be minor compared to the potential impact of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies in education. This paper explores digital learning leadership in Ireland’s secondary school sector using the ISTE Standards for Educational Leaders as a guiding conceptual framework. Qualitative interviews with school principals from various secondary school types provide insights into their existing leadership practices and anticipate their future needs. Key findings revealed digital learning visions integrally woven into the school’s broader learning and educational vision and fresh assessments of student digital competence. They highlighted the salience of the school context in decision-making and the drive for more strategic deployment of formal leadership positions and relationships within and between schools. The implication of these findings underscores the imperative of professional learning models for school leaders that are sensitive to the unique context of each school, their bespoke opportunities and challenges, and the rapid advancements in digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wave of the digital era, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has emerged as the primary tool for intelligent construction and digital transformation in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry. China's focus on policy guidance for the dissemination and application of BIM technology has promoted high-quality development and technological innovation in the AEC industry. However, few studies have described the multi-dimensional evolution picture of BIM technology policy in China, and lack of effective grasp and prediction of policy evolution law and future direction. An improved policy quantitative analysis framework is built using natural language processing (NLP) based on deep learning in this paper. The dynamic characteristics of 242 Chinese BIM technology policy documents from 1998 to 2022 in the PKULAW database are quantitatively analyzed by the framework, and the four-stage integrated evolution of Chinese BIM technology policy is quantitatively mapped in a visual form through network analysis and dynamic topic model (DTM). Furthermore, this research conducts a comprehensive discussion from three dimensions, providing valuable insights for policy makers and industry participants in China. The findings contribute to the deep integration of policy optimization and the construction industry, while also aiming to share China's experience in BIM technology governance with other countries and regions. Ultimately, this study seeks to support the global AEC industry in its digital transformation and development by offering valuable knowledge and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, world economic development was coupled with disruptive challenges. Among them, digitalisation and new forms of globalisation represent a potential threat for economic growth opportunities and for the future of labour markets. Digital transition calls for the assessment of the impact of robotisation and digitalisation on skill composition, employment levels, productivity and growth dynamics. In turn, the largest wave of globalisation after that taking place before the First World War caused, first, the emergence of global value chains and, more recently, their disintegration with partial mechanisms of reshoring, with consequences for growth and employment opportunities. All these challenges call for comprehensive approaches to their modelling. This paper presents the main advances introduced in the fifth generation of the MAcroeconomic, Sectoral, Social, Territorial (MASST5) model, which carved a relevant niche in the empirical literature on macro-econometric regional growth, and has now been strengthened to model future digitalisation transitions, as well as the national and regional breakdown of the way global value chains will reorganise. A longer time series, especially in the regional submodel, also allows one to take the major changes taking place in Europe following the 2007–08 financial crisis, and the 2020 COVID-induced contraction into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship scholars interested in the performance of innovative start-ups mainly focus on the internal factors related to innovation processes. In the present paper, the research perspective used to study the performance of innovative start-ups is broadened by also considering the influence of the context – more specifically, the technological regime, defined as the state of the art of the technological environment resulting from technological changes/upgrades. Thus, the objective of this study is to investigate if and to what extent the technological regime can affect the performance of innovative start-ups. Statistical elaborations for about 11,760 Italian innovative start-ups (data are retrieved from the Italian Ministry of Economic Development website and are current up to January 2021) are carried out through the estimation of a stochastic frontier analysis: a parametric model. This methodology identifies the causes of inefficiency and disentangles random from technical inefficiency of the model. The results reveal that the technological regime affects performance but, unexpectedly, does not boost the impact of internal factors (related to innovation processes) on performance. The main conclusion is that internal innovation-related factors and the technological regime do not benefit each other when innovation processes are managed in innovative start-ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation has emerged as a significant area of interest for scholars in global political science and public administration. The advancement of digital technologies is driving a comprehensive transformation across the economy, society, and governance, thereby profoundly affecting the state governance of China. The introduction of new technologies has altered traditional power dynamics, leading to centralization and empowerment—the power redistribution issue of the digital era, which is a fundamental concern in China's state governance. The effects of technological power, including empowerment and disempowerment of various entities, give rise to or reinforce four secondary issues: the problem of data silos and collaborative governance in internal government operations, the challenges related to technological deficits and platform regulation in market regulation, the issues of the digital divide and social justice in social governance, and concerns about privacy, transparency, and rights asymmetry. This paper integrates specific cases from China's digital transformation and digital government initiatives to examine these cuttingedge issues and to analyze the impact of digital government reforms implemented by local Chinese governments on traditional government theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies have significantly impacted the music industry,leading to its digital transformation.This study explores the effects of digital technology trends on different aspects of the value chain in the music industry.Using qualitative content analysis and semi-structured expert interviews, streaming, artificial intelligence (AI), voice control, and blockchain are identified as technologies with widespread effects in this context. This paper provides insights on the impacts of digital technologies on value creation and capture mechanisms, and offers recommendations for companies to seize emerging opportunities. Indeed, insights from the music industry, can be applied to other more "traditional" industries as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a multi-period difference-in-difference model is constructed to investigate the impact of network infrastructure on enterprise digital transformation. The results show that network infrastructure has effectively promoted the digital transformation of enterprises. Meanwhile, as the scale of network infrastructure construction expands, the role of network infrastructure in promoting enterprise digital transformation will be enhanced. Based on the mechanism analysis, network infrastructure promotes enterprise digital transformation through two channels: easing corporate financing constraints and improving core technical capabilities. Furthermore, the role of network infrastructure in enterprise digital transformation is not invariable, the effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, growth enterprises, manufacturing enterprises, and enterprises located in developed cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Setting up a Digital Transformation (DT) strategy is often done ad-hoc without guidance. Supporting frameworks can help. This paper aims to build and validate a conceptual model made of a generic set of most prominent DT strategic objectives. This representation is built out of a systematic literature review and refined/validated through expert opinions. Organisations can use it as reference to build their custom DT strategic objective set. An instantiation is shown on a Belgian hospital. The representation can be integrated into an existing IT development process for evaluating the alignment of new software with respect to the organisation's DT strategic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous acceleration of digital transformation, significant changes have occurred in the tourism labor market. Using the data of China's listed tourism companies, this paper analyzes the impact of digital transformation on tourism employment. The findings are as follows: First, digital transformation has promoted employment growth of tourism companies. Second, digital transformation increases the demand for high-skilled workers and squeezes out some low-skilled workers, thus adjusting the employment structure of tourism companies. The results provide detailed evidence for the employment changes in the tourism labor market under the background of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization makes its way into the agri-food sector; thus, new technologies provide conditions for sustainable agricultural production, contributing to "greening" of the agricultural sector. In this paper, we highlight EU as an actor that is able to form networks enhancing cooperation between the main economic and productive actors that seem to be critical for agricultural transition to digitalization. On the other hand, this proves to be a particular tool to achieve the goal of "greening" of the agri-food chain. Emphasis is laid on the extent to which this process is integrated in the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For the purposes of the article we rely on relational and network-based approaches, providing a holistic framework on the role the EU plays to conceptualize change for sustainable agriculture and agri-food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial advances the point that a dialectic of oppression and liberation, implicit in a multiplicity of objects of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) research, qualifies as a distinctive feature of the present and future of the ICT4D field. This point builds on Qureshi's argument that the notion of 'digital transformation for development' plays a twofold role, at the intersection between enhancement of human capital and intensification of oppression over structurally silenced groups. First I illuminate the traits of a dialectic of oppression and liberation, as they are reflected in research debates that the ICT4D field has recently engaged. I then reflect on how the papers in this issue portray this dialectic, at the same time joining long-standing themes of ICT4D research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text is a summary of a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation, which focuses on Grand Innovation Challenges (GICs). The special issue includes four articles that explore different aspects of innovation in relation to these challenges. The articles cover topics such as the resilience of innovation systems, the challenges posed by online labor platforms, the coordination challenges faced by ecosystem orchestrators in the metaverse, and the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration in open social innovation. The authors of the special issue call for research that addresses GICs from various perspectives and suggest several areas for future research. Overall, the special issue aims to shape the research agenda for innovation studies and invites scholars to contribute to the ongoing debates. [Extracted from the article]

This paper critically analyses the current state and future implications of digital transformation, with a specific focus on the challenges that organizations navigate in the post-pandemic era. By emphasizing the importance of strategic vision, adaptability, and a human-centric approach, this article underscores the potential of digital transformation to create value and drive sustainable growth. The reflections and conclusions presented in this work can provide valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article introduces a special issue on contemporary topics in luxury marketing and branding based on a collection of papers presented at the 2021 AUS-Chalhoub Symposium. The special issue aims to advance the growing body of research on luxury marketing and branding and instigate new research in domains and contexts including sustainability and luxury, multi-stakeholder perspectives in luxury and digital transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the expansion of digital transformation, interpersonal interactions remain the foundation for successful business-to-business (B2B) sales meetings in complex exchanges. This study focuses on rapport building and examines it as an explicitly and implicitly manifested ongoing process covering the entire duration of a B2B sales meeting. Based on empirical findings from a qualitative study of Japanese business professionals, the study develops a process conceptualization of rapport building. It draws on the rapport management model from sociolinguistics, showing how rapport building is based on meeting individuals' fundamental needs for appreciation, approval, fair consideration, and social inclusion, besides fulfilling business-related rapport needs. Based on the data, we identified three phases in rapport building (establishing, developing, and leveraging) and various overt and covert rapport-building activities the salesperson can adopt to create and nurture rapport with a customer by relying on verbal, nonverbal, and intuitive cues. Our findings indicate that only the final phase, leveraging rapport, offers an optimal setting for discussions on future business opportunities. The study challenges the stereotypical notion of rapport as mere small talk at the beginning of a sales meeting and provides valuable managerial implications related to successful rapport building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Maurice Holland Award is an annual award presented to the authors of the best paper published in the previous year's volume of Research-Technology Management. The 2023 award was given to Michael Obal, Todd Morgan, and Wesley Friske for their article titled "Is 'Cutting-Edge' Good? Assessing Product Newness Factors in Technologically Turbulent Environments." The article explores the challenge faced by firms in developing products that are both cutting edge and easily understood by customers. The authors found that while firms are effective at innovating, customers may not be driven to adopt the newest products. The award aims to bridge the gap between research and practice, and the winning article emphasizes the importance of striking the right balance in new product development. [Extracted from the article]

This study investigates whether digital transformation promotes corporate philanthropy in the Chinese context. We find that corporate digital transformation enhances philanthropic giving and internal pay gap negatively moderates the effect. In addition, we validate the potential channels of decision-making and information transmission that digital transformation affects corporate philanthropy. Further testing shows that digital transformation has more positive effects on corporate philanthropy in high-level digitalized or social-trusted regions than in low-level counterparts. This study enriches our understanding of the impact mechanism of digital transformation on corporate philanthropic giving and provides a new theoretical perspective on the process of corporate philanthropy decision-making in the digital era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the resource orchestration theory (ROT), this research explores the significant role of digital infrastructure in enabling business model governance innovation (BMGI) within manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using a sample of 237 cases from Guangdong Province, China, linear regression analysis demonstrated that digital infrastructure could significantly facilitate such innovation. Additionally, both design and use recombination acted as mediators, with design recombination yielding a substantially stronger positive impact on BMGI. This study also highlighted the contrasting impact between discrete and process manufacturing, showing that discrete manufacturing derives more substantial benefits from digital infrastructure. The findings of this research provide valuable theoretical insights into the digital transformation and value creation of SMEs in the manufacturing sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses processes of digital transformation in adult education centres (AEC) in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It focuses on (a) environmental changes as perceived by specific actors, (b) topics and content related to the public education mandate, and (c) development and expansion of the organisation's digital media repertoire. The data come from an explorative study in one German state, in which 34 managers were interviewed between November 2021 and May 2022 about key changes within their organisations. The results show that (a) different actors from the organisational environment are involved in shaping the digital transformation. A distinction can be made between enablers and inhibitors. In addition, (b) the AEC's public education mission and thus the AEC's efforts to promote digital inclusion are also changing. Finally, (c) digital transformation is also changing the organisation's digital media repertoire. Ensuring basic infrastructure and new digital technologies for micro-didactic areas and exchange within and outside the AEC are seen as necessary. The results show that digital transformation is a multidimensional process with clear interrelations. These have hardly been explicitly considered in previous research. Pedagogical practice can gain suggestions from the results for improving cooperation with the organisational environment or for improving the organisational media repertoire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic, COVID-19 shattered everyday life as we know it and disrupted education globally. In this study, we explore an initiated digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic from school leaders' perspectives in the context of Swedish high schools. The data consists of a questionnaire with 105 school leaders containing both fixed and open-ended response types. The results reveal significant differences in school leaders' views on how the transition has worked, whether they and their staff have developed their digital competence, and, how it will affect the school onwards. Contributions include theorising about school leaders' experiences of navigating an accelerated digital transformation prompted by the pandemic. We introduce four school leader profiles: (a) the enthusiast, (b) the affirmative (c) the skeptical, and (d) the hesitant. These profiles serve to encapsulate the nuanced perspectives of school leaders, thereby enriching our comprehension of their diverse requirements and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The digital transformation of architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) is being hailed as a panacea for the sectors' problems, with major actors in government and business promoting it as a benevolent harbinger of greater efficiency, productivity, better quality, and environmental performance. However, advancing digitalization in AEC is intertwined with a distinct political-economic logic that involves new constraints, dependencies, and a reconfiguration of power relations. Specifically, Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a digital convergence of three-dimensional building models, databases, and interfaces for multidisciplinary collaboration operates as a runway technology for digitalization and an entry point for platformization impelled by global software giants, such as this article's empirical case of software company Autodesk and its BIM product portfolio shows. BIM's linkage of governmental policy strategies with the techno-economic platform logic of software subscription models, open application programming interfaces, and cloud-enabled collaboration ensures management and control of construction data and software interoperability. At the same time, BIM's techno-economic and political configuration facilitates a near-monopolistic structure in the global architecture and construction software market. It thus grants one hegemonic company immense power to define what formats, standards, and data for building models and design processes are being used in creating the built environment. The expansive, intersecting logics of assetization, platformization, and datafication have been taking hold in the AEC sector, raising questions about their stratifying effects in the built environment and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium enterprise (SME) digitalisation involves the reinforcement, modification, and renewal of business models with the help of digital technologies. It is widely considered imperative for SMEs to stay relevant in the digital age. Yet, little is known about the conditions under which SME digitalisation improves the performance of SMEs in the IS literature. Guided by the SME literature, we postulate that the business value of SME digitalisation – based on its impact on improving financial firm performance – is dependent on two factors that are particularly relevant to SMEs due to their smallness and flexibility: radical orientation and organisational rigidity. Using data from multiple waves of surveys in 2019–2020 and archival financial data from Dutch SMEs, we demonstrate that the positive impact of SME digitalisation on performance improvement strongly depends on SME characteristics. SMEs who are oriented towards radical change and are more rigid are disadvantaged and attain lower returns on SME digitalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many enterprises are looking to use electronic services to avoid human-to-human contact. During this transition period, enterprises are embracing new business models and digital transformation to overcome the crisis. Similarly, the government is also in need of digital transformation in response to these significant changes. However, there is a lack of empirical research on the motivations behind government digital transformation. Consequently, this study aims to fill this gap in the existing literature. The push-pull-mooring model is suitable for explaining the process of transferring from an inherent way to a new way, such as migration and changes in switching behavior. Therefore, it is an apt framework for elucidating the process of adopting digital transformation within government agencies. In total, data were collected from 268 government employees to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results show that the motivations of digital transformation are indeed affected by the push-pull-mooring model. These motivations encompass service process inconvenience, avoid face-to-face contact, strengthen information security, top management support, fear of learning new IT, and the cost of digitalization. Interestingly, service process inconvenience and fear of learning new IT exhibit interaction effects in relation to age-related inertia. This finding suggests that government agencies can provide varied encouragement and incentives based on employees' age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of the intensity of countries' digital transformation on the performance of 3961 global companies in the Information Technology sector in 2020. We analyse the impact of e-government index, e-participation index, and cybersecurity commitment on firms' performance (enterprise value, book value per share, and cash flow from operation per share) using OLS regression. A structural equation modelling was further employed to explain the mediating role of cybersecurity commitment. Results suggest that e-government has a positive linkage with cybersecurity commitment and performance. However, there is preliminary evidence that cybersecurity measures initiated by e-government will drive performance. The e-participation index has a positive association with cybersecurity commitment and a heterogeneous impact on performance, suggesting the need to differentiate between development and participation. Finally, results highlight the pivotal role of e-government and cybersecurity commitment in boosting the profitability of companies and supporting the influence of the surrounding technological environment on companies' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between the agglomeration of the digital service industry (ADS) and listed companies' digital transformation in China. We analyze panel data from 282 prefecture-level cities and listed companies for 2010–2019. The results reveal that ADS has an indirect positive effect on listed companies' digital transformation by improving firms' innovation inputs and decreasing their operating costs. These findings hold after using instrumental variables to solve the endogeneity problem and conducting robustness tests. Digital services is the only producer service industry whose agglomeration influences listed companies' digital transformation. The impact of ADS on digital transformation is strongest in manufacturing, non-state-owned, and small and medium-sized enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]