A Proposed Framework to Identify Digital Transformation Maturity in Small Industries

Abstract

Over the last decade, the landscape for business has become more dynamic. There are several variables that contributes to it, mostly directly related to technological innovation. One of these phenomena is the digitalization, that enables information to be processed universally, in high speed and relatively low costs, while the cycle gets globalized reducing multiple barriers. Inside this process, companies start to interact with technologies using new platforms, that’s when business begins its digital transformation, by implementing new digital technologies, which modifies the relationship with components of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, affecting internal scenarios and spheres of relations outside. Thus, it is relevant to understand how companies can embrace digital transformation as an opportunity to innovate, differentiate and growing. Therefore, in this paper we ask if there is a tool that could help innovation managers to evaluate the company’s maturity regarding digital transformation? To answer this question, we have been proposed a framework that can identify in which part of the organizational structure innovations have been present. In addition, it can establish the achieved level of maturity. For that, the methodology applied began by developing a digitalization management framework, with seventeen questions concerning eight organizational dimensions and the adoption of technological innovations. The framework passed by an evaluation process and went available for collecting data of small enterprises through digital survey platform, sent by e-mail. The framework application permitted us to characterize 346 companies in São Paulo, from those 77 were industries, our focus on this paper. The results showed that not even one industry was characterized fully digitally transformed, most of all stayed in primary levels of maturity. It is possible to conclude that the framework can be applied in companies of diverse segments, size and locality. Its execution can be helpful for organizations themselves, serving as a basis for creating actions and plans that facilitate their evolution