Abstract:
There is a dearth of scholarship on digital transformation at for-profit firms in countries behind the technology frontier. However, digital transformation has been at the centre of disruptions of business practice and organisational theorising. To understand digital transformation at for-profit firms in countries behind the technology frontier a scoping review was conducted to map the most cited and influential theoretical foundations, emergent themes and the thematic evolution of digital transformation for the period 2012 – 2022. In conducting the scoping, the study adopted the Arksey and O’Malley Framework for scoping reviews and customised it with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
Theories like the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, the institutional theory, the global value chain (GVC) governance theory and the catch-up perspectives are some of the commonly cited. Five themes emerged namely the epistemological evolution of digital transformation, digital technology diffusion and adoption, technological capability accumulation, value creation, capture and distribution, and digital platform ecosystem. As a result of mapping the theoretical foundations and the emergent themes the study contributed to theory by providing the descriptive outline of the theories cited in scholarship on digital transformation in countries behind the technology frontier as a foundation for future theorising. Secondly, mapping the themes contributes to contextualising the conceptualisation of digital transformation, confirming conceptual convergence and divergence and thematic stabilisation. The study contributes to practice by clarifying the influential theories and themes thereby enabling management and policy makers in firms and countries behind the technology frontier to infuse dynamism in the pursuit for the digital transformation of operations, opportunities and competencies
