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The swift advancement of digital technology has rendered the digital transformation of firms a crucial element propelling innovation and growth within the pharmaceutical industry. This study seeks to explore the influence of digital technology, digital strategy, digital leadership, and digital innovation on the digital transformation of Chinese pharmaceutical firms, along with a detailed analysis of digital innovation’s role in this process. The study background demonstrates that digital transformation substantially influences the operational efficiency and market competitiveness of pharmaceutical firms. This study proposes the following research questions: How do digital technology, digital strategy, and digital leadership affect the digital transformation of Chinese pharmaceutical firms? What role does digital innovation play in this process? Quantitative methods are employed to perform statistical analysis on the gathered data by developing structural equation models to validate research hypotheses. Research indicates that digital technology, digital strategy, and digital leadership significantly enhance the digital transformation of pharmaceutical firms, with digital innovation serving a mediating role. This study indicates that digital innovation is a crucial catalyst for the digital transformation of Chinese pharmaceutical firms. Firms must prioritize the use of digital technology, the development of digital strategies, and the enhancement of digital leadership to facilitate digital transformation. This study holds both theoretical and practical significance for advancing the digital transformation of Chinese pharmaceutical firms.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach for a digital strategy including generic options. Our research is based on our previous contribution in which we have analysed and compared existing approaches on digital strategy. We expanded this research by conducting 13 semi-structured interviews to gain insights from experts on digital strategy (researchers and consultants). We also analysed 10 case studies collected using semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Our findings show that digital strategy, although still in its infancy, is currently a significant topic across several industries. The paper offers an integrated approach for the development of a digital strategy which consists of six phases: external strategic analysis, strategic forecasting, internal strategic analysis, strategic principle, strategic options and strategy formulation. Within the integrated approach we also deliver four generic digital strategies: product provider, service provider, product platform operator and service platform operator.

In the new global digital economy, holistic digitalisation has become central for all non-profit and for-profit institutions. Recent developments in digital initiatives have heightened the need to investigate holistic digitalisation. This paper aims to develop a meta-view of holistic digitalisation consisting of several fundamental perspectives for strategically oriented digitalisation. These perspectives include digital strategy, digital transformation of business models, digital implementation, and digital maturity. Each perspective consists of an approach including a procedure model and relevant content. Combined with our previous work, we applied semi-structured interviews and included the insights to develop an initial, grounded theory for a meta-view of holistic digitalisation. The paper offers a relevant concept and outlines an appropriate research methodology to advance this research field. This closes an existing research gap regarding digitalisation.

The increasingly digital business landscape has created manifold novel opportunities as well as threats to traditional business models. In consequence, a broad variety of digital business models emerged. Powerful tools and managerial guidance on how to shape digital strategies in this volatile and uncertain terrain are sought-after, but remain rare. Building on an analysis of the world’s top-1.000 venture funded technology startups over the last decade, we identify 49 novel business model types that describe firms as vendors of digitally enabled products and services, as providers of resources and capabilities for digital business, and as facilitators of intermediation. Furthermore, we identify the novelties of these digital business models types in their components, i.e., value proposition as well as their value creation, delivery, and capture processes. The result is a recipe collection of novel mechanisms to guide and inspire other firms when commercialising digital technologies in their business models.

Digital transformation has led to several improvements in performance and efficiency, but its impact on growth patterns needs to be clarified. Two schools of thought dominate the literature on digital growth strategies. One stream advocates that digital firms should focus only on scaling their core position, while the other contends that firms should envelop into multiple complimentary markets. This seeming “paradox” in the strategic management literature, between advocates of a focus and a diversification growth strategy, shows a need for critical review and clarification of this literature. This paper synthesizes both views and argues that the distinct growth strategies are contextual and that a new catalyst, the relative level of digital transformation of firms in each market, influences their optimal strategy. A new conceptual model illustrates how digital firms may move between different strategies depending on their perceived market opportunities, competitive advantages, and the relative level of digital transformation of their competitors. Hereby, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the growth strategies of digital businesses.

Digital transformation has emerged as a critical strategy in today’s dynamic business environment. However, the high failure rate of digital transformation initiatives underscores the need for a deeper understanding of the factors that drive success. This study conducts a comprehensive examination of digital transformation success factors through a systematic literature review. Through a bibliometric analysis of 34 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2017 and 2023, the study evaluates research areas, temporal trends, geographical distributions, journals, significant keywords, and principal authors based on co-authorship. It unveils the current digital transformation research landscape, synthesises 119 enabling factors into 13 core dimensions for successful digital transformation, and presents a new and holistic digital transformation model. This model offers valuable guidance for practitioners in the field and organisations navigating transformation challenges.

Open innovation seems to be practiced mostly by large organizations as they are perceived to better leverage substantial external information sources such as digital data flows. Within open innovation research, initial analysis focused on multinationals; small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were underresearched. Although there is a common perception that open innovation suits mostly multinationals, this research emphasizes the importance and benefits of open innovation adoption by SMEs through Social Media. This chapter explores quantitative and qualitative information from 360 firms in the Geneva region concerning the innovation potential of digital tools. The results demonstrate the perceived importance of social media as a source of open innovation within the Swiss SME landscape. Researching how Swiss SMEs can benefit from social media for open innovation could be relevant for both practitioners and policy makers as the importance of a digital strategy comprising data processing capabilities needs to be emphasized.