Towards a Framework for Identifying Digital Improvement Opportunities : Utilizing Information Flow and its Stakeholder Value

Humanity is at the starting point of a new industrial revolution, affecting our daily life, work and way of thinking. New technologies and breakthroughs drives the fourth industrial revolution, transforming the structure of the world economy, society and its people. The key component of these changes is the rapid technological development, which relies on the high degree of digitalization. The work with digitalization is a highly discussed topic, but no general or standardized method for digital improvement efforts has been established. In order to face the challenges associated with the technological development, which forces organizations to invest time and resources to create their own methods for working with digital improvements. This study focus on the common characteristics or elements found in previous digital improvement efforts, in an attempt to summarize and identify the success-factors. These elements were further analyzed and evaluated against established theory, to assess the element’s trustworthiness and generalizability, resulting in a conceptual framework. The conceptual framework was tested and evaluated in a case study concerning two case companies to achieve practical applicability, leading to the final framework. This final framework, focusing on information flows connected to an organization processes, was found capable of identifying, analyzing and prioritizing digital improvement opportunities, by utilizing external and internal factors. Thus, answering the research questions: RQ 1: How would a framework capable of identifying digital improvement opportunities, based on common characteristics found in literature, be presented? RQ 2: How can digital improvement opportunities be prioritized and evaluated, to create value for an organization, whilst being practicable? RQ 3: Which information is necessary to retrieve, to successfully implement digital improvements