Seite - 141 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

Therefore as complicated transformations take place, companies need to create management practices to oversee themand as abovementioned authors agree (e.g. Kvist andKilpiä2006; IlmarinenandKoskela2015;Matt et al. 2015) coordination, prioritisation and implementations of digital transformation can all be done suc- cessfullywhen adigitalisation strategy exists.According toFitzgerald et al. (2014) technology opens routes to newways of doing business and a clear plan helps the organisation to avoidmistakes in that process. In addition,Westerman (2016) also points out the new opportunities that digitalisation brings along and lists three technology-driven forces that are transforming thenatureofmanagement.Theseare automation, data-driven management and resource fluidity, whereas technology helps businesses to increase efficiency and productivity as well as innovation and customer satisfaction. We candiscuss further that digitalisation results frommultiple different aspects. According to Tolboom (2016), one reason for digitalisation is the changing cus- tomer behaviour anddemand.Customers today expect to get service faster and this had led organisations to offer online services that are constantly available for customers.Kvist andKilpiä (2006) foundoneof the reasons for digitalisation tobe companies’willingness and need to be more customer-centric, wanting to focus moreoncustomers’ relationshipsandmakingcustomers’ liveseasier. Ilmarinenand Koskela (2015) state similarly that with the possibilities digitalisation creates, companies can focus more on customer wishes and preferences. Another reason behind digitalisation is that organisationswant to end usingmultiple services and channels for doingbusiness andwithdigital services, all canbe found inoneplace. Additionally, Pagani (2013) highlights the competitive advantage, added value and higher profits that can be attained with the use of a digital business strategy. Fosic et al. (2017) acknowledge that while companies have had IT strategies for decades already, thesewere only to support the business strategy, and propose that companies should no longer have separate IT and business strategies, but just one digital business strategy that applies for both, the IT and business side. Thus by utilising a digital business strategy organisations can be more competitive in today’s challenging business world. 3 Opportunities and Threats of Digitalisation Several authors and also practitioners agree, that digital solutions can simplify systems, provide improvement in services, facilitate trade and make business activities faster and easier. According to Matt et al. (2015), the benefits of digi- talisation include increases in sales and productivity and innovations in value creation. With digitalisation stakeholder interaction often increases as well and organisations can spend more time on customers, clients and other stakeholders when certain processes are digitalised. This was also affirmed in Berman’s (2012) study which showed that companies wishing to gain opportunities from digitali- sation should focus on reshaping customer value propositions and transforming 146 M. Kooskora