Purpose
The overall purpose of the study is to develop the understanding of how digitally maturing companies design and operates the digital unit. The study has examined the organization within the companies that directly or indirectly develop digital offerings (the digital unit) towards external customers , and has utilized the holistic concept of an operating model in order to do so. The purpose is addressed by the following research question: What common factors exist between the digital units of digitally maturing companies?
Method
The study is exploratory in its nature with an inductive approach, in which a qualitative multiple case study was conducted. In order to study digitally matured companies, the selection process involved the help of digital experts as well as previous studies on digital maturity. In total, 21 semi-structured interviews with informants from 8 digitally matured companies were conducted, together with 4 interviews with experts in digitalization and business development. The informants had a good understanding of respective organization, and the data was complemented with publicly available information such as reports, presentations and websites.
Results
The results show that there are many common factors between the studied organizations that can help explain as to why they are prevalent in digital innovation and maturity. In total, 22 common themes were identified between the organizations’ digital units by studying their operating models.
The identified themes were aggregated into a proposal of 4 generic design principles for how the digital units could be designed in order to prosper digital innovation. In addition, a framework for operations modelling is presented with a focus on digital units.
Theoretical implications
The theoretical implications from the study is primarely fourfolded: (1) the study develops the knowledge of digitally matured companies and concretizes the result from previous studies. (2) The study develops the concept of an operating model by identifying and bridging 6 academic fields. (3) The study presents a suggested framework for modelling the operations in general, and particularly for the design of the digital unit. (4) The study support a multidisciplinary approach to studying best praxis from a holistic perspective.
Practical implications
The results from the study can serve as inspiration when designing organizations for today’s the managers in general, and for the managers within digital innovation in particular. The suggested framework and design principles can facilitate the process of understanding and designing a synergetic operation that support the business model and strategy.