Digitally Transforming in a Traditional Industry: A Senior Management Perspective

Abstract

Digital transformation (DT) continuously reshapes and disrupts established industries. While DT has become a buzzworthy trend, many firms still struggle to advance their DT journeys. As such, we explore the drivers of DT, and the challenges managers encounter as DT is manifested in practice in traditional industries. By adopting a qualitative approach, we gain insight into senior managers' perspectives on DT in the context of the Swedish forestry industry. Our results reveal that the drivers of DT in traditional industries hinge on organizational structures, innovation direction, and organizational identity being changed to prevail. Our study extends research on DT in traditional industries and highlights probable areas of concern that industry practitioners can probe during their organizations' transformation journeys.