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Though academic study on the subject is still in its early stages, there is growing interest in using blockchain technology for transforming the supply chain. The academic literature is divided and yet only includes studies evaluating how the supply chain has changed organizations. To comprehend the new phenomena, this study aims to investigate the factors of blockchain technology in driving supply chain transformation. To be more precise, the authors developed from the literature the most prevalent criteria for determining if supply chain transformations are ready to be scaled up.

This study followed a combination of two multi-criteria decision making methods evaluation based on distance from average solution and complex proportional assessment) methodology in this research: planning, investigating, executing out, establishing a rating of the criteria and evaluating it.

The study shows that the “organizational driver” and the “technology driver” are the factors most important to the transformation of the supply chain, whereas the “financial driver” and the “regulatory driver” are less important. This study also makes some managerial recommendations to address the factors impeding the supply chain’s transformation. Each factor’s significance was explored, and a proposed study agenda was also presented.

Although the main forces behind the transformation of the supply chain have been recognized, further research into statistical correlation is required to confirm how the various elements interact.

This research aids decision-makers in comprehending the key forces behind supply chain transformation. Managers and decision-makers might better predict and allocate the necessary resources to start the road toward digitization and make well-informed choices once these aspects have been investigated and understood.

In light of the pandemic’s effects on the world and the increase in businesses embracing the digital economy, the supply chain transformation is more important than ever. Beyond blockchain deployment and the pilot studies on digital transformation, there is a gap. The topics and factors this study uncovered will operate as a framework and recommendations for more theoretical investigation and practical applications.

The purpose of this paper is to address a specific gap in the literature that centers on individual perspective of leadership within the context of organizational transformation. It explores synergies between leadership, analyzed as a combination of individual and plural perspectives, and managerial drivers relating to organizational transformation (communicating, mobilizing, and evaluating).

The study examines a complex organizational transformation initiative faced by an Italian, family-owned fashion design company through an action research project.

The results illustrate that context may play a role in accelerating the implementation of plural forms of leadership and their effectiveness during some phases of transformation. Specific emerging manifestations of leadership and synergies with transformation drivers are identified.

This is a single case study derived from an action research project. Although the approach is congruent with the nature of the phenomenon and the purpose of the study, it does not aim for generalizability, and as such further empirical investigation is advocated.

The paper offers an original perspective on leadership of organizational transformation, discussing in particular the co-existence of individual and plural leadership and the role of context.

Tertiary education has been going through dramatic transformation in recent times. Such transformation is seen in teaching and learning at tertiary education. This study, therefore, aims to understand the transformation of teaching and learning in tertiary-level education, particularly by accounting the experiences and perspectives of postgraduate learners.

The study narrowed higher education transformation into four key drivers such as expansion, excellence, extension, external and explored their dynamics and impacts for teaching and learning in tertiary education. The data was gathered from 25 doctoral students from three different cohorts, who shared their critical reflection on their experiences and perspectives on the transformation of teaching and learning in a reflective journal. The 25 reflective journals were used as the qualitative transcripts for analysis. Standard required ethical protocols were followed in the research. The results were analysed using thematic analysis.

The findings indicate that teaching and learning in the higher education are transformed largely using technology, by engaging various stakeholders, several pedagogic methods, a range of assessments and numerous contents and materials. The findings suggest that higher education transformation has affected teaching and learning in tertiary education positively in the UAE, while identifying some relevant areas for improvement.

Single data and small sample size (although suitable for the study) are the limitations. The experiences and perspectives of the postgraduate scholars on teaching and learning offer relevant insights for postgraduate learners, academic, researchers, curriculum developers, policymakers. The study asserts that accounting student's experiences and perspectives supports the understanding on the transformation of teaching and learning in tertiary education.

The study contributes to the ongoing debate on how students are helping shape teaching and learning practices in tertiary education, particularly from the UAE context using informed critical reflection. The study contends and concludes that teaching and learning in tertiary education are continued to be shaped by emerging trends and development.

This paper aims to summarize previous research findings on the mutual relation between digital transformation and sustainability at a firm-level. Up to date, there is a gap in the literature linking both concepts and a generalized call for more studies.

This research uses a systematic literature review of 89 published studies. After detailed content analysis filters, the authors used 75. The authors present the results following the “Six W” guidelines for systematic literature reviews.

Findings reveal that it is possible to suggest a research framework that considers digital transformation as a driver and a predecessor of sustainability. To survive the digital revolution, companies need to enhance their digital capabilities and balance their economic, environmental and social impacts.

The precision of the equation used to search manuscripts might have excluded some critical studies that analyze both topics with different connotations beyond merely “Digital transformation” and “Sustainability.” Moreover, the heterogeneity of the findings makes it difficult to classify the findings in a specific context.

The present paper serves as a base to understand the implications of digital transformation on sustainable development for businesses and societies.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a framework to contextualise the formation and transformation of three major medinas in North Africa, namely, Tripoli, Tunis and Fez. The framework is designed to identify key factors that formed these medinas in the first place, and key causes of transformation in reference to three distinctive forces: colonisation, modernisation and globalisation, which include political, economic and social changes that influenced the transformation process.

Colonisation, modernisation and globalisation changed the physical appearance and urban fabric, introduced new architectural styles and at the same time changed the social structure, lifestyle, and the inhabitants’ perception and use of spaces within their medinas. Physical aspects of the transformation process are investigated using comparative case studies, while social aspects are studied through interviewing three main actors in housing: users, decision makers and professional architects.

By identifying key factors of formation and main drivers of transformation, together with analysing the physical and social aspects associated with the transformation process, the framework aims at developing a holistic, complex picture of housing transformation within a specific context: the medinas of North Africa. However, the framework is introduced as a valuable tool for exploring the transformation of other cities with relevant and similar context.

Through the use of comparative case studies and interviews, the study focuses on capturing the essence of traditional medinas, understanding the reality of social change within housing transformation and contextualising the physical aspects of housing transformation.

Prior research has highlighted the pervasive importance of digital technologies in business and societal settings, but their enabling role in digital transformation, and effective forms of organization to address tensions that arise during attempts to promote it, have been insufficiently explored. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why tensions affect clusters established to foster digital transformation.

Empirical data were acquired through a qualitative exploratory holistic single case study, focused on the Swedish Cluster of Forest Technology. This included interviews with informants, selected by homogeneous purposive sampling, and event observation to investigate the personal perspectives of representatives of every company engaged in the cluster, followed by a thematic analysis of their comments.

The case study revealed three major tensions, between knowledge flow, collaboration and competition, but also others that were interrelated with those major tensions, related to matters such as trust and protection of intellectual property, power equality and hierarchy, and networks that must be managed in digital transformation efforts.

The paper extends understanding of the tensions that arise, and their management, in digital transformation processes.

The authors’ aim is to investigate if entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has a role in interpreting an external crisis, such as COVID-19, as an opportunity for investing in digital transformation.

The authors undertook multiple case study research on the digital transformation of seven “Made in Italy” SMEs and proposed a conceptual framework that sees an external stimulus (e.g. the pandemic) as a driver of the digitalisation, filtered by the entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs.

The authors’ results show how EO deals with the changing environment and helps address the market opportunities related to digitalisation.

This study contributes to the existing literature on EO and digital transformation of SMEs, creating a new model for forthcoming studies on this topic. In addition, interesting insights are offered on the role of EO to promote the introduction of digital transformation in SMEs operating in the “Made in Italy” sectors.

This study shows the role of EO as a reactive characteristic during a crisis. Thus, the authors’ suggestion to SMEs is to develop their EO as a part of the strategic orientation. In addition, this work encourages policymakers to invest in the promotion of specific interventions aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in enhancing their capacity to effectively manage digital transformation.

Identifying the most important triggers of digitalisation in times of crisis remains an underexplored area of research. Thus, this study adds value to both digital transformation and entrepreneurial orientation topics.

Public and private sector organisations are widely endorsing digital transformation processes, but little is known about the level of digitalisation of an organisation as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework to assess an organisation’s level of digital transformation as a whole, taking the field of museums as an exemplary case of application.

The framework draws upon a scoping literature review of studies examining dimensions, metrics and methods for the assessment of the digital transformation of organisations. The framework has been validated by applying it to a sample of 400 Italian museums and further interviews with museum directors.

The authors propose an assessment framework composed of five main dimensions: people, technology, process, customer and strategy and investment. These dimensions are further deployed in sub-dimensions measured through a set of questions. The weighted average of results per dimension and sub-dimension supported the development of a composite index of organisational digital readiness.

The developed framework contributes to the current debate on the measurement of an organisation’s level of digital transformation as a whole, and it can offer practitioners a managerial tool to assess the organisation’s digital readiness.

Ubiquitous digital technologies are driving organisations to embrace non-traditional digitally transformed business models incessantly. Heterogeneous literature contributions have resulted in a spur in the research related to business transformation driven by digital technologies in recent years; consequently, the research under the digital transformation (DT), even though becoming a hotspot, remains very fragmented. The authors endeavour to holistically present the literature's intellectual structure under DT as a concept, its evolving journey and the emerging research streams in the business and management domains using the techniques of bibliometric analysis.

By performing bibliometric analysis on 234 research articles published over the last 20 years in the DT domain, retrieved from Thompson Reuters Web of Science ^TM, this study culls out thorough insights from the citation, co-citation and keyword analysis. Further emerging research streams were evaluated using VOSviewer software.

The study depicts an overall incremental trend of year-on-year publications, authors' performance, publication journals, associated institutions and research driving countries, along with key insights from co-citation network analysis. Furthermore, the study evaluates four research areas – organisational impacts, applied applications and insights, operational processes and social aspects, comprising eighteen research streams that comprehensively cover-up research under the DT domain.

The study contributes to the literature of DT by amalgamating the status of the present research, but more importantly, by deriving the research areas and research streams, which can be further expanded by researchers as future research streams.

For the practitioners, the study aims to act as a ready reckoner repository with practice-oriented literature references to facilitate them building knowledge and taking effective strategic decisions to harness the benefits of DT more proficiently.

This study illustrates the bibliometric structure of the DT literature and presents insights from the growth of the literature year-on-year.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relations between the directors' and officers' (D&O) insurance and digital transformation of Chinese-listed companies to provide insights into triggers of digital transformation from the perspective of D&Os' incentive plan.

Based on a panel dataset of 2,590 listed manufacturing companies in China from 2017 to 2020, and using a textual analysis of annual reports, this paper empirically examines the impact of D&O insurance on digital transformation. The authors investigate the mechanism through a mediating model and apply a series of robustness tests including firm fixed effect model, propensity score matching and changing key measures.

The research shows that the digital transformation has been negatively influenced by D&O insurance. The long coverage duration of D&O insurance significantly lowers the level of digital transformation. The moral hazard problem caused by D&O insurance has hampered digital transformation through reducing explorative innovation, while there has been no significant change in innovation quantity. Under the coverage of D&O insurance, firms with worse internal governance and state-owned firms are more reluctant to invest in risky transformation than their counterparts.

Based on a textual analysis of annual reports, this paper empirically tests the influential mechanism of D&O insurance coverage on digital transformation. The authors provide insights into non-tech triggers of digital transformation and uncover how incentive plans influences D&Os' behaviors. This paper provides a new angle to the debate on governance-strengthening and governance-weakening role of D&O insurance.