Digital Platforms as Sources for Organizational and Strategic Transformation: A Case Study of the Midblue Project

Abstract

The paper is centered on the role of technology and specifically of IT in the recombination of the factors of production. Particularly, the objective is to see how this technology contributes to the formulation of business strategies, the outlining of organizational structures and the alignment with the business environment. A theoretical framework is proposed that combines three perspectives. The first perspective stresses the importance of digital architectures in the modalities through which firms organize for innovation. Second, organization as a platform outlines a scenario for generating multiple organizational forms based on recombination of existent resources, routines and transactions. Third, digital platforms are seen as determinant tools for a dematerialization process that consents to recombine the factors of production for achieving a competitive advantage. The Midblue project provides an illustrative example of how strategy, structure and information technology co-evolve in organizations and how digital platforms can trigger transformation at both strategic and organizational levels

Digital transformation: a review, synthesis and opportunities for future research

“…Digital technologies are considered a major asset for leveraging organizational transformation, given their disruptive nature and cross-organizational and systemic effects (Besson and Rowe 2012). In order to achieve successful digital transformation, changes must occur at various levels within the organization, including an adaptation of the core business (Karimi and Walter 2015), the exchange of resources and capabilities (Cha et al 2015;Yeow et al 2018), the reconfiguration of processes and structures (Resca et al 2013), adjustments in leadership (Hansen and Sia 2015;Singh and Hess 2017), and the implementation of a vivid digital culture (Llopis et al 2004). Therefore, the scope of our review revolves around digital transformation at the organizational level only (in contrast to implications at the individual level).…”

“…Seamless integration of digital technologies requires building an agile and scalable digital infrastructure that enables continuous scalability of new initiatives (Sia et al 2016). For example, Resca et al (2013) suggest a platform-based organization. In addition, digital transformation demands a new kind of enterprise platform integration (El Sawy et al 2016).…”

A Design Theory for Digital Platforms Supporting Online Communities: A Multiple Case Study

“…The former provides a set of services based on the inner platform architecture or its living IT infrastructure (vom Brocke et al, 2014). The platform owner holds these services and controls their evolution with the purpose of exploiting the value of community interactions (Resca et al, 2013) and protecting information security (Baskerville et al, 2014). Complements are a collection of elementary IT capabilities made available by external players to satisfy the broad needs of online communities.…”

Organisational learning as an emerging process: The generative role of digital tools in informal learning practices

“…Recent approaches to the strategic management of organisations focus on the transformative role of digital technologies linking internal and external resources (Yoo, Henfridsson & Lyytinen, ). This positions organisations as platforms able to generate value in new and unplanned ways (Resca, Za & Spagnoletti, ). In this context, individual and group learning processes can benefit from the exchange of information and peer production of content within online communities of practice across organisational boundaries (Spagnoletti & Resca, ).…”