Smart Companies: Digital Transformation as the New Engine for Reaching Sustainability

Hilali, Wail El; Manouar, Abdellah El

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11196-0_13

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…A survey, conducted by El Hilali and El Manouar (2018) among 15 well-established Moroccan companies from different industries, found that 87 per cent of the questioned firms have taken a digital transformation initiative. The vast majority of the questioned companies linked their digital transformations to the enhancement of the customer experience, the adoption of cloud computing, the integration of the mobile as a channel to reach customers and the use of big data.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching sustainability during a digital transformation: a PLS approach

Hilali

Manouar

Idrissi

2020

IJIS

Self Cite

115

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Purpose In a world where big data have become crucial to guarantee the success of companies, digital transformation came to help companies transition towards a digital business and accept the changes in the organizational structure as well as the market. Nonetheless, even with the ever-growing importance shed on it, few articles and studies have linked it to the sustainability paradigm. Empirical studies that have linked between the factors of digital transformation and a more sustainable business are still scant. Many efforts are still needed to reduce the knowledge gap between these two concepts. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by examining (empirically) the effect of digital transformation on sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The study validates five different hypotheses highlighted by the literature using structural equation model (SEM) analysis from partial least square (PLS) approach. It uses a new conceptual framework using a survey data, answered by 41 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Morocco from different industries. Findings Using PLS-SEM modeling, the results show that customers, data and innovation, which are drivers that companies should work on during a digital transformation, have a significant impact on companies’ quest to reach sustainability. However, and in contrast to the existing literature, authors find that competition did not play a significant role in enhancing the companies’ commitment to sustainability. Practical implications Authors’ findings encourage firms to seize the opportunity of digital transformation to embrace sustainability, because the implementation of these two concepts requires radical changes at the business model level. Authors suggest that the road to achieve sustainability in a digital era should focus on three main axes, enhancing the customer experience and adopting customer centricity, building data analytics capabilities and shifting innovation to the business model level. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first research papers that explain how to reach sustainability during a digital transformation. The originality of this paper lies in the fact that it focuses on SMEs as they remain the backbone of the Moroccan economy. This study is also novel for showing with empirical evidences that working on the axes of customers, data and innovation, during a digital transformation journey, will improve sustainable practices within businesses.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reaching sustainability during a digital transformation: a PLS approach

Hilali

Manouar

Idrissi

2020

IJIS

Self Cite

115

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“…2.2 Role of digital platforms for smart urban transformation Digitalization in urban environment occurs when systems are integrated supporting digital imperatives for municipalities to capture and create value (Zaramenskih, 2018). It is achieved by use of digital platforms to improve service efficiency and uncover new opportunities (El Hilali and El Manouar, 2018). Digital platforms are systems and infrastructures that provide access to computational capacity and data (Yovanof and Hazapis, 2009).…”

Section: Modeling Pervasive Platformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling pervasive platforms and digital services for smart urban transformation using an enterprise architecture framework

Anthony

Petersen

Helfert

et al. 2021

ITP

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PurposeIn smart cities pervasive systems are deployed by enterprises and stakeholders in municipalities to provide digital services to citizens. But cities are faced with the challenge of achieving system pluggability, mainly service integration due to numerous actors and systems needed for smart urban transformation. Hence, there is need to employ a comprehensive and holistic approach to help achieve service integration of pervasive platforms. Therefore, this study presents an Enterprise Architecture Framework (EAF) to support smart urban transformation.Design/methodology/approachIn this study the design science research methodology is adopted based on a multi-case studies of two organizations and data is collected using semi-structured interview from an organizations and municipality in Norway to validate how service integration can be achieved by the developed EAF to address pluggability challenges faced in urban environment.FindingsFindings suggest that the presented EAF provides the structure to manage changes and maintain urban transformation and aims to align the business with the underlying information systems from the perspective of the stakeholders. Additionally, findings from the case studies modelled in ArchiMate language depict how service integration of different pervasive platforms provide digital services for smart urban transformation.Research limitations/implicationsThis research only employed semi-structured interviews to validate service integration of digital platforms, other identified dimensions of pluggability were not fully addressed in this study.Practical implicationsFindings from the case studies provides insights on how pervasive platforms can be integrated to achieve a pluggable digital service from different stakeholders and data sources in practice. The developed EAF presented in this study provide a model that supports collection and exchange of data from different data sources in smart urban environment to enable the provision and consumption of digital services.Social implicationsThe developed EAF aids system pluggability of actors and systems in providing digital service such as smart urban transformation that contributes to sustainable use of electric mobility in cities.Originality/valueAs cities increasingly deploy pervasive platforms to support urban innovation, researchers are seeking to explore how these platforms shape urban transformation. Presently, prior studies do not offer important insights into pervasive platform management from urban perspective. Against this backdrop, this study employs the information systems perspective of digital platforms literature roots in software development and physical product development to depict how the EAF can be employed to describe specific cases that integrate different pervasive platforms deployed by different stakeholders communicating to co-create collective digital services to citizens.

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