New Publication on the Digital Orientation of Firms
Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, or cloud computing are of strategic importance for the value creation of companies. However, research has so far provided little insight into how a firm's strategic orientation towards such technologies can be explained and measured. The study now published in the European Management Journal integrates recent digitalization themes with IT business alignment research and presents the novel concept of a firm's "digital orientation". Based on 6,498 letters-to-shareholders from US companies over a period of 16 years, a research project conducted by Dr. Bastian Kindermann and Prof. Dr. Steffen Strese (both TU Dortmund University) together with researchers from RWTH Aachen University and WWU Münster developed a new measurement instrument.
This new measurement instrument enables researchers to examine firms' digital orientation as a strategic orientation towards digital technologies, digital capabilities, digital ecosystems, and the digital architecture of the organization on a large-scale basis and over long periods of time using computer-aided text analysis (CATA). In addition, the study empirically shows that digitally oriented companies can achieve higher firm performance than companies with a less pronounced digital orientation. It thus offers important opportunities for further empirical research on the digital transformation and innovation of companies.