The (long) road towards smart management and maintenance: Organising the digital transformation of critical infrastructures

The digital transformation of organisations, triggered by various digital technologies such as smart sensors, smart meters and IoT devices, provides large amounts of data that make it possible to make smarter decisions. For (Dutch) infrastructure organisations this provides opportunities to smarten the management and maintenance of their assets. But why are these technologies not used on a large scale yet? Two important hurdles for infrastructure managers here are 1) accessing the right data and the expertise needed to transform data into information and 2) the need to collaborate closely with partners in their respective supply networks. This doctoral thesis investigates these hurdles, thereby adding to the emerging literature regarding the impact of digital transformation on collaborating organisations and providing Dutch infrastructure with practical ways to overcome these hurdles. The three empirical studies in this doctoral thesis each investigate a specific aspect of the impact of digital transformations on collaborating supply network partners. Specifically, the study in Chapter 2 focuses on how the two main data processing activities (i.e. gathering data and transforming data) can be managed in dyadic relationships through contractual and relational governance mechanisms. The study in Chapter 3 focuses on how post formation adjustments to contractual and relational governance mechanisms in dyadic relationships are made to cope with uncertainty caused by the digitalisation of collaborative processes. Finally, the study in Chapter 4 focuses on the governance of supply networks (i.e. networks with three or more partners) and how these can be motivated to start sharing and using data coming from digital technologies