Resourcing digital competence in product development: A computational study of recruitment at Volvo Cars

Abstract

Competence renewal is an intrinsic part of digital transformation. However, digital competence is generic competence - it is function-agnostic and not tied to the specifics of a firm's product portfolio. It typically does not fit established institutional structures. Therefore, it is particularly complicated for product-developing firms to develop digital competence, since functional decomposition and profound specialization prevent necessary knowledge mobility. We adopt a resourcing perspective to analyze how Volvo Cars identified, engaged, and deployed human resources to balance supply and demand for digital competence. Our study relies on over 5000 published job postings, which we compared with the European Skills, Competences, and Occupations (ESCO) framework on the basis of natural language processing. While broadly confirming the idea that digital competence spread from IT departments into mainstream operations, our study also demonstrates asymmetry in the resourcing environment, reflecting tension between emerging and existing structures. Our study also reveals a tendency to close digital competence deficits through external recruitment rather than internal hiring, and by creating new positions rather than replacements.