Digital Transformation as an Enabler to Become More Efficient in Sustainability: Evidence from Five Leading Companies in the Mexican Market

Abstract

Not only was Digital Transformation (DT) accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but over recent years some companies have already developed actions related to DT. It is well known that DT has many benefits, such as improving business models, making communication channels more efficient and facilitating decision-making. Furthermore, amongst others, one big challenge of DT is to contribute to areas related to sustainability. The objective of this article is to offer an exploratory review of how a small sample of leading Mexican companies have used DT as an enabler to be more efficient in some sustainability-related issues. The companies analyzed in this paper belong to different sectors: communication services, retail, financial, food and beverages, and materials. Through the identification of DT initiatives and implementations across time, a radar chart was constructed in order to identify, as a first approach, those related to sustainability in order to identify evidence of what some companies are doing in this regard. In addition, actions were grouped under the Business Dimensions defined by Deloitte Development LLC in order to emphasize the focus given by the organizations. One of the main conclusions from the evidence is that indeed big companies have a digital strategy agenda but not necessarily related to sustainability, but also that it is collaterally affected positively due to the economies of scale and operational improvements, from DT. This a qualitative primary study that can be reinforced in the future with analytical evidence that can measure impacts, effects, etc., to enrich strategies that relate to both DT and sustainability.

Food Retail Resilience Pre-, during, and Post-COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis and Research Agenda

“…Pre-COVID-19 [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] During COVID-19 [10][11][12]14,[16][17][18][21][22][23][24] Post-COVID-19 [14,24,39,66,75,[78][79][80] Studies on the pandemic period are of great importance as they provide insight into how the pandemic has affected different aspects of society. The studies mentioned above highlight some key areas that have been the focus of research during the pandemic, including price changes [32,36,38,65], policy implications [40,48,49,55], food safety [17,30,43], and consumer behaviors [12,71,81].…”

Role of Digital Transformation for Achieving Sustainability: Mediated Role of Stakeholders, Key Capabilities, and Technology

“…The studies highlight the importance of including sustainability in the organizational culture, which directly influences sustainability through DX [80,81]. Therefore, MSMEs should adopt a vision that promotes sustainable DX to benefit the company, society, and the environment in their organizational culture.…”

“…The most crucial implication for any organization is to ensure that stakeholders are well-informed about new policies and changes in business operations, particularly during times of crisis [81,110]. By sharing information through digital or physical means, stakeholders can actively contribute to crisis management [108].…”

“…As a result, MSMEs utilizing services can enjoy more energy-efficient operations compared to traditional on-premises infrastructure, leading to reduced energy consumption and a smaller carbon footprint [81,133]. With cloud computing, MSMEs aiming to adapt to ever-changing business requirements can benefit from its flexibility and scalability [133].…”

Digital investment, intellectual capital and enterprise value: evidence from China

“…The existing literature has explored the relationship between digital investment and enterprise value, yet no consensus has been reached. Some studies have shown that digital transformation not only positively influences profitability and organizational performance (Chouaibi et al, 2022;Truant et al, 2021;Zeng et al, 2022) but also plays a significant role in creating value, efficiency, and sustainable development of firms (Amit and Han, 2017;Diaz and Montalvo, 2022;Vrontis et al, 2022). A study conducted by Ma et al (2022) indicates that the utilization of digital technology can enhance enterprise value through technological and business model innovation.…”