CALL FOR PAPERS
California Management Review (CMR)
Special Section on
"Managing Digital Transformation: In Search for New Principles"
- Deadline December 30th, 2018 -
Guest-Editors:
Carmelo Cennamo, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy
Giovanni Battista Dagnino, University of Rome LUMSA, Palermo Campus, Italy
Alberto Di Minin, BRIE U.C. Berkeley, USA &
Istituto di Management, Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy
Gianvito Lanzolla, Cass Business School, City, University of London,
London, UK
The diffusion of digital technologies ? e.g., internet of things,
cloud computing, blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence ? has
enabled a notable transformation in firms? boundaries, processes,
structures, roles, and interactions. To be sure, this is not just a
traditional IT backend process since it affects the organization as a
whole, thereby redefining its strategies, entrepreneurial processes,
and innovation and governance mechanisms. This permeation has in turn
led to the emergence of new ways of organizing firms? value chains and
interfirm relationships, which now increasingly occur not in isolation
but in so-called digital ecosystems.
The benefits of digital transformation have widely been highlighted in
both managerial literature and academic inquiry (e.g., Iansiti and
Lakhani 2017; Lanzolla and Frankort, 2016; Pigni et al. 2016;
Economist 2014; 2017). For instance, a key feature of such systems is
their ability to foster generativity at the collective level, which is
the technology system?s ?capacity to produce unprompted change driven
by large, varied, and uncoordinated audiences? (Zittrain 2006:1980).
Furthermore, because individual components connect through
?thin-crossing points? (Baldwin and Clark 2000), firms can reduce
co-dependence and increase both the reach of inter-firm collaboration
and flexibility through non-contractual, collaborative relationships.
Firms and organizations use digital transformation in different ways.
Some use it to improve the internal organizing process of innovation
and run it more efficiently and effectively (e.g., GE, IBM). Others
use it to sharpen the way they connect to and collaborate with
consumers, product suppliers, and other firms even if rivals (e.g.,
BMW, CFA, and Tesla). Others instead leverage digital transformation
to build two-sided platforms and remodel their role and impact within
entire industries by changing the rules of competition (e.g., Airbnb,
Uber, or Amazon).
However, these benefits do not come without challenges and may hide
important tradeoffs (Cennamo and Santalo 2015). In particular, digital
ecosystems are enabled by digital technologies, and digital
technologies compound traditional risks of information systems with
new ones including the ?illusion of objectivity? and ?black-box?
decision-making. Thus, how should firms understand and manage the
technological risk that is at the very core of a digital ecosystem?s
infrastructure? In addition, because of the non-contractual nature of
interfirm collaborative relationships, digital ecosystem complexity
can be sharp, especially when it comes to coordinating innovation
activities.
Drawing on various emerging lines of inquiry (e.g.,
platform/ecosystems, business model innovation, coopetition, and so
on), this special section of California Management Review aims to
unveil the key principles of digital transformation management and
underscore how they actually inform the firms? new boundaries,
processes, structures, roles, and interactions.
We are interested in studies that clarify how digital transformation affects:
(a) the boundaries, processes, structures and roles of firms? value
chain in the industries where they operate, and/or collateral ones;
(b) the way firms create and capture value;
(c) the way firms cooperate and compete simultaneously;
(d) the way firms form and operate partnerships and digital ecosystems;
(e) the way firms manage the risks arising from interconnected
products and increasing firms? interdependence.
Above we highlighted some of the substantial challenges that arise
with the process of digital transformation. The purpose of this
special issue is to generate a solid collection of papers that focus
on such challenges and shed light on the origin of the best practices
to tackle them. We envision a special issue composed of analyses of
real cases, conceptual pieces, and empirical studies of successful (or
intriguing failures) digital transformations of firms and ecosystems.
This special section should thus foster additional conversation on
this important subject among practitioners and academics alike and
ideally bring the topic to the forefront of academic and managerial
research. Finally, it should provide material for in-class discussion,
as well as catalyze further cross-disciplinary study in this new
avenue at the intersection of innovation, strategy, and
entrepreneurship.
If you are interested in participating in this discussion, we request
that you submit a full draft of your paper no later than December
30th, 2018 to the attention of the Guest Editors using the following
address:
cmr@santannapisa.it. The paper should reflect the CMR
editorial guidelines.
Please include a cover letter explaining: (i) the purpose of your
study; (ii) the particular digital management practices addressed in
your study; (iii) the context in which you examine your question and
draw conclusions (i.e., real names of companies need to be cited
unless the contribution is intended to be conceptual); (iv) the
relevance of your study for practitioners, academic scholars, and CMR
readership. You are welcome to contact any or all of the Guest Editors
for further information.
Based on your draft, Guest Editors and CMR Editors will select papers
that are most likely to result in first-rate, high-impact submissions.
Authors of potentially interesting studies will then receive an
official invitation to submit their paper online through the CMR
system no later than January 30th, 2019 to be peer reviewed.
Authors whose papers receive a revise and re-submit will be invited to
a special conference organized by the Guest Editors. At this
conference, authors will be asked to present their revised paper
(first revision). The double-blind, peer-review process will be
rigorously performed according to CMR tradition and guidelines.
We anticipate that this issue will be published in CMR sometime
between February and May of 2020.
References
Baldwin C.Y., Clark K.B. 2000. Design Rules, Vol. 1: The Power of
Modularity. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Cennamo C., Santalo J. 2015. How to avoid platform traps. Sloan
Management Review, vol. 57: 12-17.
Iansiti M., Lakhani K. 2017. Managing our hub economy. Harvard
Business Review, September-October issue: 84-92.
Lanzolla and Frankort. 2016. "The online shadow of offline signals:
which sellers get contacted in online B2B marketplaces?.Academy of
Management Journal, 59.1: 207-231
Pigni F., Piccoli G., Watson R. 2016. Digital Data Streams: Creating
value from the real-time flow of big data. California Management
Review, vol. 58(3): 5-25.
The Economist. 2014. Platforms: Something to stand on
The Economist. 2017. A digital future: Financial services and the
generation game.
Zittrain J. 2006. The generative Internet. Harvard Law Review 119: 1974?2040.
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Giovanni Battista Dagnino
Chair of Management
Professor of Digital Strategy
University of Rome LUMSA
Palermo Campus
Via Filippo Parlatore, 65
90145 - Palermo (Italy)
Tel: 39.091.6810.761
Fax: 39.091.6816.569
E-mail:
g.dagnino@lumsa.itWeb site:
www.giovannibattistadagnino.eu