Management for Digital Transformation

The digital transformation underlying the fourth industrial revolution—Industry 4.0—is making headway at an increasing pace. The way we work and live is changing fundamentally, and the opportunities that digitalization brings to our lives and the ways it reshapes our work at all levels are innumerable. This study aimed to explain how the utilization of emerging digital technologies for organizational and management controls has been studied and what kind of performance improvements can be achieved. A systematic review of the current literature was conducted to this end. The analysis revealed four main themes in the literature and future research directions to fill research gaps. The identified gaps were related to: (1) the internal and external drivers for utilizing digitalization in management and organizational controls, (2) the impacts of digitalization on management control systems, and prerequisites for using digital tools in management control, (3) the effects of digital tools in decision-making, and related challenges, and (4) digitalization’s effect on performance. Another possible future research direction would be to investigate the possibilities of specific techniques, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, business intelligence, and Internet of Things, in organizational and management control and decision-making.

Digitalization has become critical in today's economies as it allows individuals access to resources and capabilities that could not have been accessed without it. However, the development of digital infrastructures is not easy. The digital transition has been recognized as a global challenge in today's societies that need collaboration to get valuable technological assets. This idea has been defined as “technology transfer”(TT) and has been identified as one of the most critical determinants for digitalization achievement. Although there is consensus on the positive side of TT and digitalization, there is anecdotal evidence of the negative part and the challenges that this new paradigm brings. To offer a holistic understanding of the consequences and the impact of TT in a digitalized economy, this chapter provides a conceptualization of TT and digitalization, investigates its advantages and disadvantages; shows some applied evidence through the lenses of real cases; identifies the main challenges and implications that TT and digitalization have on today's society and organizations.

The digital transformation is the scenario of integral change that organizations have experienced in recent years, within Industry 4.0. Organizations carry out their own internal digital transformation that involves changing organizational culture, redesigning business models and strategy. The paradigm of the new digital economy requires the creation of new talent management models through human resource practices that drive the changes inherent in digital transformation. Innovation has become a permanent factor in generating competitive advantages for companies. New digital skills and talent management models based on technologies such as HR Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are required. Companies must adopt new strategies for attracting and retaining talent, given the growing talent shortage. On the other hand, technology allows companies to personalize the job and professional offer, generating new lines of relationship between talent and the organization.

In today’s business landscape, managers are confronted with two relevant trends that present considerable managerial challenges. Firstly, the integration of technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, and others, opens up new possibilities for digital transformation processes. Secondly, the diverse range of social issues has prompted a critical examination of companies’ decision-making processes and their active role in addressing these issues. While existing analyses primarily focus on the challenges faced by companies in successfully undergoing digital transformation, there is limited discussion in the literature regarding the vulnerabilities and potential risks to consumer dignity that arise during this process. As a result, this chapter aims to contribute to the exploration of these crucial issues by drawing upon the growing body of the literature on humanistic management and human dignity protection.

The rise of synthetic content generators has gained momentum over the past few years, with the increasing need for automation in content creation. These tools use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to generate content, including text, images, videos, and audio. Synthetic content generators have become popular, with several platforms offering them as service, allowing users to create content with minimal effort. Despite the growing popularity of these tools, we are still in the early stages of research on how people use them and their impact on human communication. The current study analyses how professionals from communication and marketing agencies in Galicia (Spain) are beginning to use synthetic content generators and their motivations for doing so. The study will also examine the extent of use of these tools and their impact on human communication. To achieve this objective, an online form was developed and distributed among participants who have used generative AIs or synthetic content generators before in their work as advertising agencies. The online form collected both quantitative and qualitative data, allowing for a mixed-method analysis. The main results show that respondents are testing these tools, but still using them cautiously since this technological advance generates suspicions. The main uses are related to brainstorming—helping in creativity processes—and generating first drafts for texts. ChatGPT is the most known application, acting as a key for the introduction of other AI applications and assistants.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a bigger and rapid adoption of digital technologies, as people needed to communicate, work, study, entertain themselves, and buy without leaving home. In fact, the pandemic serves as an accelerator for a structural change in online consumption and the digital transformation in the marketplace, organizations, and society. With this in mind, the purpose of this chapter is to review and reflect on the online trends derived from the coronavirus pandemic. Particularly, by reviewing recent literature on the topic, and presenting results of an exploratory survey, it will shed light on how people have changed and shifted some consumption patterns online with respect to (a) e-commerce, (b) Internet and social media use, and (c) demand for online services. Overall, this chapter will explore observed changes and trends around people and technology during and after the coronavirus pandemic to serve as a basis for future directions for organizations and brands.

In a world characterized by deep changes, where concepts such as globalization, internationalization, digitalization, and diversity are gaining more and more strength, contributing to the promotion of high levels of competitiveness, organizations find themselves in need of introducing significant changes in their ways of functioning. Often geographically dispersed, these organizations nevertheless need to ensure their connection. At this level, operating through digital means and information and communication technologies, virtual teams assume themselves as working groups that can be adopted by organizations. Effectively, with the increasing levels of digitalization that have been observed in the different sectors of activity, the option to use virtual teams has become an increasingly common reality within organizations that promote distance work. The path towards the effectiveness of digitalization has, in this way, contributed to these teams being created more efficiently, overcoming temporal and spatial barriers, and making it possible to collaborate and share information and ideas in real time. However, the effectiveness of these teams and, consequently, of these new ways of working, imply adequate management of the organization's time and resources, as well as the creation of a collaborative and inclusive culture. Based on this reality and these challenges, this chapter, through a case study, seeks to analyze the management practices adopted (in particular, in terms of human resources management), which facilitate the implementation of work in virtual teams, as well as a brief analysis of the literature supporting this issue.

This chapter illustrates and synthesizes the role inter-organizational collaborations play in industry digitalization (Industry 4.0) by hinging on two of the main theoretical frames that help to understand collaboration processes; the Helix and Networks Paradigms. It also offers empirical evidence through five cases of collaborative European and Regional innovation projects that illustrate how insights from both paradigms can foster digitalization processes. More precisely, we dive into the successes and failures of these cases to unveil not only what strategies managers and firms should engage in but also what issues need to be avoided. This chapter provides both theoretical and practical contributions. Additionally, policymakers, researchers and professionals can also hinge on the examples presented in this chapter to better understand the effects of collaborative networks on innovation and growth.

The global boom in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry has exponentially accelerated the usage of mobile phones (MPs). Mobile phone consumers frequently update their MPs to meet the technology demand and keep up with new architectures, capabilities, and innovations, leading to burst volumes of MP waste (MPW). This study explores various MPW management practices. The emphasis is on MPW concepts with a particular focus on consumer knowledge and awareness level regarding MPW, MPW management motivation, consumer attitude and willingness to pay or engage the MPW management move and hindrance factors or limitations towards MPW management habits. The data collection process employed qualitative methods. This study uses visual analytic tools, scientometric and bibliometric, to classify and analyse published articles from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. R version 4.2.1 software analysed all gathered data. Selected keywords were used to search for relevant articles from Scopus and WoS databases published between January 1981 and June 2022. The results from the search came out with 26510 relevant articles, of which 93 articles were chosen for detailed review regarding e-waste management. The bibliometric results indicate that electronic waste (e-waste), including the MPW publications, started in 2008 and increased intensely from 2016 to 2021, with annual growth rates of 16.99% and 20.58% in WOS and Scopus, respectively. It was revealed that financial incentives are inevitable for the increased collection of MPW. MPs also contain different precious metals worth billions of dollars that require to go for urban mining to be cheaper than virgin mining. The MPW seems to be the current world problem, and India seems to be the leading country in the move towards research for solutions and the status quo of the global MPW. Additionally, MPW contains harmful and toxic materials which are dangerous to the environment and human health. These need special attention in managing them to protect the environment, which is the focus of many studies to ensure cleaner and greener production of electronic equipment. The study concluded with the conceptualised MPW management approaches.