Digital Transformation Strategies and Their Impact on Organizational Performance in Emerging Economies

Abstract

Digital transformation has become a key element in driving competitiveness and sustainability among organizations that operate in the emerging economies, whereby the speedy adoption of technologies intersects with resource constraints and institutional challenges. Although digital technologies have been substantially invested in, a gap still exists in the evolution of digital transformation strategies into tangible improvements in organizational performance. This research fills this gap because it empirically investigates the effects of digital transformation initiative on organizational performance among firms in emerging markets. A sample of organizations was used to collect data using a quantitative research design, through structured surveys and secondary source of finance. To assess the connection between variables of digital transformation, including digital investment, adoption of automation, and the ability of data analytics, and key performance indicators, including financial performance, automation adoption, and the capability of data analytics. To make the study robust, control variables (size of firms, type of industry, age of organizations) were included. The results show that the digital transformation affects organizational performance statistically significantly and positively, with the data analytics ability and process automation becoming the most influential drivers. The findings also suggest that those firms which have a higher rate of digital maturity exhibit greater financial development and operational roles in comparison to those firms which have not yet attained the same degree of digital maturity. This research can be discussed as a contribution to the existing body of literature because it presents empirical data of the emerging economies to provide a more subtle perspective of the role of digital strategies in influencing the firms-level results. It also presents practical information to the managers and policy makers who need to make optimal digital investments and improve organizational performance within resource-constrained settings.