Digital business strategy : critical business model components for digital business success

Abstract

The current business landscape is vastly different from that of a decade ago, due to the continuous technological advancements influencing all aspects of business strategy. This digital evolution impacting organisations has increased the necessity for organisational leaders to incorporate new digital capabilities into their digital business strategies and the design of their digital business models. There is thus a need for organisations to design digital business models that enable them to not only remain competitive, but to also capitalise on the opportunities available to them in the new digital world. The findings of this research indicate that six business model components that were postulated to form part of a digital business model design are statistically significant in influencing the success of a digital business strategy. In addition, the results indicate the cumulative effect these business model components have in determining the success of the digital business strategy. Furthermore, the results enable the ranking of the various business model components regarding their importance in cumulatively influencing the success of the digital business strategy. Comparative and multivariate data analysis was conducted on 97 employees who operated on a strategic level within organisations, where a digital business strategy was present and/or where the organisation offered digital products and/or services to the market. As such, only middle to senior level employees who were involved with digital strategy development and execution formed part of the research.