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This study explores how excellence models can leverage digital transformation on the path to sustainable development in organisations.

A survey was used to study the different facets of digital capabilities and their impact on sustainable development success of organisations holding an external recognition from the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM). Partial Least Squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) combined with Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) were used to analyse data.

Internalising excellence practices is decisive in mediating effective digital capabilities to achieve sustainable development. To achieve high levels of sustainable development success, organisations must achieve high levels of excellence practices internalisation, which are much more important than the excellence model external recognition.

This study addresses essential issues with theoretical and practical value but is limited to a sample of organisations with EFQM recognition in two countries. Future studies should address different organisations and cultural environments.

The findings are relevant for organisations facing digital transformation and sustainable development challenges. They are essential for managers leveraging digital capabilities to capitalise on practices and processes and achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Organisations can benefit from a multidimensional approach to digital capabilities when struggling against external challenges.

This study closes a research gap regarding the impact of digital capabilities on sustainable development success. It is the first empirical study to combine sufficiency and necessity conditions analyses to explore the mediating role of excellence practices internalisation and one of the first to address digital capabilities from a multidimensional perspective.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increasingly implement digitalization in uncertain business environments. However, a dearth exists in the entrepreneurship literature for understanding the decision-making logic of digitalization as a management issue. Drawing on the effectuation theory, this study aims to explore the relationships between effectuation dimensions and SMEs’ digitalization.

Using quantitative data collected from 345 Chinese SMEs through questionnaires, the authors conducted the principal component analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis.

The results highlight significant positive relationships between the four effectuation elements – experimentation, affordable loss, flexibility and precommitment – and SMEs’ digitalization. Moreover, this research considers the environmental conditions as moderators and reveals that environmental dynamism and complexity associated with high uncertainty negatively moderate the effects of effectuation on SMEs’ digitalization.

SMEs embarking on digitalization should constantly experiment to determine optimal strategies while contemplating their affordable losses. Flexibility should also be maintained to discard unproductive tactics and redirect to other viable options. Additionally, precommitments can reduce the risk that SMEs encounter in digitalization process. While the effectuation principles consolidate the likelihood of a successful digitalization, this research recommends that entrepreneurs should carefully consider their possible application in uncertain environments.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by theoretically clarifying the decision-making mechanism of digitalization and extends the application of effectuation to this context by illuminating the influences of effectuation principles on SMEs’ digital transformation. The identification of negative moderating effects of environmental uncertainty also augments an academic criticism about uncertainty creating the conditions for effectuation.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the success factors in a large organization that contributed to the success of organizational transformation (OT) through business diversification using a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. This assessment is done to determine how well the CAS framework can explain the success factors that contribute to the success of large-scale organizational change in complex organizations. If the CAS framework is capable of explaining the organizational factors that lead to the success of change implementation, the managers can employ this framework to increase the likelihood of success while implementing change.

This study uses qualitative research methodology. The data were collected from the case study organization (CSO) through 40 in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic deductive analysis approach.

The CAS framework explains the success factors that contribute to the success of OT through business diversification.

This paper provides a comprehensive guide for change implementation by combining the insights from the CAS framework with identified success factors (for change implementation) from the case organization.

The originality of this paper lies in extending the principles of existing change models, for successful change implementation by using the CAS framework. The prescribed change models and the CAS framework/complexity theory are two distinct sets of literature; this paper successfully merges the two to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for change implementation. By doing so, this paper highlights the fact that alternative, non-linear, change approaches, instead of conventional multistep change models, can be effective in implementing large-scale organizational change successfully given the complexities of current organizational environments.

The organizational digital transformation (ODT) in companies presents small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – who remain at the beginning of this transformation – with the challenge of offering digital services based on sensor technologies. Against this backdrop, the present paper identifies ways SMEs can enable digital servitization through sensor technology and defines the possible scope of the organizational transformation process.

Around 21 semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts from different hierarchical levels across the German manufacturing SME ecosystem. Using the Gioia methodology, fields of action were identified by focusing on influencing factors and opportunities for developing these digital services to offer them successfully in the future.

The complexity of existing sensor offerings must be mastered, and employees' (data) understanding of the technology has increased. Knowledge gaps, which mainly relate to technical and organizational capabilities, must be overcome. The potential of sensor technology was considered on an individual, technical and organizational level. To enable the successful implementation of service offerings based on sensor technology, all relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem must network to facilitate shared value creation. This requires standardized technical and procedural adaptations and is an essential prerequisite for data mining.

Based on this study, current problem areas were analyzed, and potentials that create opportunities for offering digital sensor services to manufacturing SMEs were identified. The identified influencing factors form a conceptual framework that supports SMEs' future development of such services in a structured manner.

To augment sales revenue, B2B digital start-ups aim to create and sustain commercial relationships with industry incumbents. However, since these incumbents have traditionally struggled with implementing disruptive digital artifacts, most studies have almost exclusively concentrated on their challenges, leaving the digital start-ups' side underexplored. Therefore, this study seeks to understand how digital start-ups navigate digital implementation (DI) hardships to ultimately achieve digital entrepreneurship success.

An abductive explanatory multi-case study of four industries that pose a variety of implementation challenges for B2B digital start-ups (agriculture, insurance, real estate and construction, and healthcare) was conducted using data collected from 40 interviews with Israeli experts and relevant digital data observations.

This study articulates two main observations. (1) Throughout their journeys, digital start-ups have utilized newly created and/or refined dynamic capabilities (DC) to successfully implement their digital artifacts. Simultaneously, successful DI has enabled digital start-ups to create new DC or sustain and evolve current DC. (2) We provide empirical evidence outlining how digital start-ups using continuous learning have combined causation and effectuation logic throughout their DI journeys.

This study answers a call to explore more explicit digital-related drivers (i.e. DI) for digital entrepreneurship success by studying a highly-ranked country on the Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) to achieve this. Moreover, it illustrates how digital start-ups evolve throughout their commercial relationships with industry incumbents, thereby enabling an effective approach for successful DI. Such an approach can be considered very valuable for both practitioners and policymakers. Consequently, it advances digital entrepreneurship as an independent research topic.

This study aims to develop a conceptual framework for the role of chief financial officer (CFO) in an ever-changing environment. As previous research focused on responding to specific crises, there have been theoretical and practical gaps in the role of CFO. The study's goal is to fill a critical gap by developing a comprehensive and integrated set of roles to assist the CFO in a constantly changing environment.

Using a grounded theory approach, semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted with 21 CFOs from various industries in Thailand, including foreign multinational corporations and domestic companies with international operations. CFOs were asked how they frame their roles in the face of an ever-changing environment and how they prepare for the future.

The iCFO model is developed, which identifies the critical “core” roles of the CFO in securing the business foundation, as well as the “future opportunities” roles that function as growth engines for long-term business strength. The research delves into the importance of integrity, ethical mindset and corporate governance in the role of the CFO. The iCFO model is designed to help guide future research and provide practical applications for CFOs in both domestic and international contexts. The term “core” refers to the CFO’s primary responsibilities, which include driving profitability, managing risks and optimizing business performance. The “future opportunities” component focuses on the roles that CFOs can play in strengthening the future of business by optimizing investment efficiency, driving digital transformation and being the CEO’s business partner. The findings also emphasized “integrity,” which must encompass all decisions, actions or recommendations made by the CFO.

The study offers unique perspectives on an emerging economy, providing new insights. Through interviews with 21 CFOs, it contributes empirical evidence on the development of roles in accounting and finance, emphasizing good governance practices. The findings highlight the integrated role of the CFO and their self-reflection on their value within the company. Significantly, the study's implications are relevant and applicable to a global audience, particularly in developing economies that prioritize growth. Future studies could incorporate integrated thinking into the iCFO model to address social, environmental and economic factors, making it more universally relevant. Additionally, exploring the adoption of the chief value officer context in developing markets could enable CFOs to expand their focus beyond financial metrics, embracing a comprehensive approach to value creation. By integrating these concepts into the iCFO model, CFOs can effectively drive sustainable and impactful business outcomes on a global scale.

Effective knowledge management has played a crucial role in propelling the green transformation of organisations and industries. Nevertheless, its underutilisation in the real estate sector has impeded the progress of green transformation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical and practical analysis of the green transformation of the real estate industry through the lens of knowledge management and to provide a valuable reference to facilitate the industry’s green transformation.

This study entailed applying induction and deduction method, using China’s real estate industry as a typical case, and collecting and analysing the public data, corporate reports and literature of China’s real estate industry. On this basis, the authors conducted an in-depth analysis of the mechanisms through which the green transformation has empowered the sustainable development of China’s real estate industry, as well as the critical role of knowledge management.

The study has revealed that the primary challenges encountered by China’s real estate industry during the green transformation have stemmed from significant disparities in the knowledge base among different industry entities, the complexities related to knowledge integration and the “difficulty” of applying green knowledge across the entire life cycle. To address these issues, the authors recommend several strategic actions, including creating a dedicated green knowledge platform for the real estate industry, establishing a knowledge-sharing mechanism, enhancing knowledge acquisition on both the supply and demand sides and intensifying the focus on the application of green knowledge within the real estate industry.

This research holds considerable theoretical and practical significance concerning the comprehension and promotion of knowledge management’s role in the green transformation of China’s real estate industry. These insights can be applied to significantly enhance the theoretical framework of knowledge management, and the research outcomes provide substantial support for propelling the green transformation in China’s real estate industry and contributing to the sustainable development of the overall economy in China.

From a knowledge management perspective, this study introduces a series of solutions and recommendations, presenting new research ideas and pathways for advancing the green transformation of the real estate industry. In addition to guiding the industry’s sustainable development, it also significantly contributes to enhancing the theoretical framework of knowledge management.

This study aims to understand the influence of digital transformation, using Industry 4.0 technology, on food and beverage companies in the post-COVID-19 period.

To achieve the aim of this study, the authors have used innovation diffusion theory (IDT), dynamic capability view (DCV) theory and relevant literature, to develop a conceptual model. For the data, we surveyed 14, different sized food and beverage companies in India and the authors took inputs from 312 respondents at those companies to validate the conceptual model using the PLS-SEM approach.

The results from this study suggest that there is a considerable appetite for food and beverage companies to use Industry 4.0 technologies, as a part of their digital transformation journey in the post-COVID-19 scenario.

Food and beverage companies are going through a digital transformation process, which has been accelerated after the COVID-19 pandemic. Managers and leaders of the food and beverage companies need to support activities to adopt Industry 4.0 technologies. Moreover, the leaders should sponsor various readiness and training programs so that their employees successfully adopt these modern technologies.

This is a primary study on food and beverage companies that are using Industry 4.0 technologies or are in the process of digital transformation. The usage of both IDT and DCV to develop the unique conceptual model is an important contribution to the body of knowledge. Moreover, the proposed model has a high explanatory power, which makes the model effective.

In response to the growing need for organizations to enhance their digital capabilities and the widespread adoption of enterprise social media (ESM) in the workplace, researchers have extensively studied the effects of ESM on various organizational outcomes. Nonetheless, a notable theoretical gap exists regarding the influence of ESM on the development of organizational digital maturity. This paper aims to bridge this gap by conducting a comprehensive literature review to investigate how the utilization of ESM can facilitate the transformation of organizational value-creation processes, thereby contributing to the overall enhancement of digital maturity.

Using the information technology (IT) value-creation framework developed by Mooney et al. (1996) and applying a template analysis methodology as outlined by King (2012), the authors conducted a systematic literature review (Okoli and Schabram, 2010), to investigate the influence of ESM on value creation within the digital business environment.

The study’s outcomes are structured around a theoretical framework that combines the contingency theory and the sociotechnical perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of digital maturity. This paper also delves into how ESM facilitates the transformation of organizational value-creation processes, ultimately contributing to the overall progress of their digital maturity.

This study adapts existing theoretical models to fit the context of ESM and integrates multiple perspectives to provide a comprehensive understanding of its impact. It identifies a convergence in the definition of ESM and offers insights into its various dimensions and effects on value creation. Hence, scholars can use the identified theoretical frameworks and conceptual convergence to guide future investigations into the impact of ESM on value creation, fostering theoretical development and empirical research. Practitioners can benefit from the insights to develop effective strategies for implementing ESM within their organizations, aligning with broader organizational objectives to enhance performance, streamline operations and drive structural changes. Furthermore, both scholars and practitioners can use the identified limitations of the study to identify areas for further improvement and exploration, thus contributing to the advancement of knowledge and practice in ESM and value creation. Limitations of this research include the exclusion of gray literature, a relatively small sample size of analyzed articles, and the restriction to specific databases as per systematic review guidelines, potentially overlooking valuable contributions from alternative sources.

This paper provides a comprehensive exploration of how ESM can support value-creation processes within organizations. It offers valuable insights to help managers incorporate ESM into their digital strategies and to understand its value-creation effects.

Adopting a value-creation perspective and integrating the contingency theory and the sociotechnical perspective to build a comprehensive framework, this research introduces an original approach by showcasing how ESM can facilitate shifts in value-creation processes of organizations, paving the way to contribute to the development of their digital maturity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the technology-focused and technology-supported dilemmas that firms have encountered and their digital orientation from a nuanced perspective to answer the following research questions: What digital orientations do companies take in launching digital initiatives? How does the choice between a proactive digital orientation (Pro-DO) and a reactive digital orientation (Rea-DO) influence firm value?

The authors adopted machine learning and a quantitative research approach using observations from China’s listed companies from 2010 to 2020 and applied statistical techniques and regression analysis to examine the effect of digital orientation alternatives on firm value.

The findings of this study indicate that firms with a Pro-DO exhibit a positive effect on firm value. In contrast, firms with a Rea-DO do not demonstrate the same positive relationship with firm value. Additionally, this study reveals that firms with better corporate governance practices and lower financing constraints are more responsive to the positive effects of Pro-DO on firm value.

We elucidate two primary perspectives of digital orientation: Pro-DO and Rea-DO. Additionally, we empirically showcase their nuanced influences on firm value, thereby enriching knowledge in the fields of strategic orientation and digital transformation. Moreover, our findings underscore the importance of corporate governance and financing constraints as moderators.