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PRELIMINARY PROJECT FRAMEWORKS Start this section explaining what a…
PRELIMINARY PROJECT FRAMEWORKS
Start this section explaining what a framework is and addressing how the framework serves as the structure and support for the proposed project.
Discuss how frameworks are used to inform, organize, and guide the study, including the relationship to the data analysis and data collection plan for a proposed project technique.
Evaluate three frameworks that may be used to inform your study.
Include an image for each of the three frameworks.
Discuss the key concepts within each framework and make a strong argument for each framework.
Explain how the frameworks are aligned with the topic of your study.
Discuss which framework of the three fits best with your proposed project.
As you evaluate the framework, be sure to deconstruct, both deductively and inductively, theories and/or frameworks within the context of addressing a specific problem in the field of leading digital transformation.
PRELIMINARY PROJECT PLAN
In this section, you will evaluate two project techniques that could be used to complete your study, detailing the breadth of project techniques and their appropriate application for conducting a project in the field of leading digital transformation:
Technique 1: The first technique you discuss will be the qualitative inquiry technique and must align with the format of your project purpose and question. Provide an overview of the project technique. The project plan’s objective is for you to describe the process you will undertake to address the problem, fulfill the purpose, answer the project questions, and inform the gap in the practice. Ensure the project plan aligns with these foundational elements.
Technique 2: The second technique you will discuss is the quantitative regression technique. Describe how you could use this project technique to study your business problem. Explain how the project question would need to be updated to align with that technique.
AUTHOR NOTE: REFLECTION ON ORGANIZATIONAL AGENDAS
Evaluate the alignment of the purpose of project problems with the agendas of societies, foundations, research organizations, grant providing entities, or associations within the field of leading digital transformation. To complete this you may want to start with a preliminary Google search for finding examples.
Here is the project details and resources
Introduction
Leaders in the digital age are reacting to business challenges by incorporating business and research data, studies, and company examples into their new business models. Digital transformation is critical to business success as economies become more global, and businesses must transform digitally to remain competitive. Traditional business models must be integrated into digital transformation, and leaders must have stakeholder acceptance to welcome the changes and encourage staff to embrace them (Kraus et al., 2021). Leaders must migrate managing to enable, meaning they must lead by example and through their actions. Artificial intelligence has disrupted the retail industry, and businesses are experimenting with alternative business models to increase revenue streams. Digital technology is a crucial component of retail success today, as it can improve efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability. To remain competitive, retailers must stay ahead of the curve as technology changes and customer expectations change. Utilizing digital technology allows retailers to provide better customer service, increase convenience, and reduce costs. Retailers must also stay current on the latest trends and ensure their systems are secure to protect customer data. In 2019, Amazon sales comprised 36.9% of all U.S. e-commerce sales, and in 2020 they ranked as the top U.S. company in retail e-commerce sales, capturing 38.7% of the market (Anthony, 2023). The project’s objective is to define how leadership members integrate digital transformation into their current processes and what stakeholders need to do to embrace the changes that digital transformation presents (Dosik et al., 2020). This project proposal defines how leadership members integrate digital transformation into their current processes and how retail executives can successfully navigate the complex digital ecosystem. It will provide practical information on implementing best practices for digital transformation, such as customer and employee-centric approaches, effective change management, and strong leadership. Strategies for success, such as leveraging data-driven insights and agile processes, will also be discussed. The value of digital transformation can only be utilized successfully if organizations can understand how to leverage it to their advantage versus making it a problem. This study must be conducted in the early stages of digital transformation among leadership in a situation where employees resist change.
Problem of Practice
The general problem is that retail organizations are losing to competitors with digital transformation, resulting in lower profitability and customer satisfaction (Dutta & Sandhane, 2022). This is because traditional retail strategies, such as brick-and-mortar stores, cannot keep up with the convenience and accessibility of digital services, such as online shopping, fast delivery, and mobile payments. This has resulted in customers favoring digital over traditional stores, leading to a decrease in sales and a decrease in customer satisfaction. In 2023, there are projected to be 80 million more digital buyers than in 2022a 3.1% year-over-year increase (Gaubys, 2023). Businesses risk falling behind their competitors if they fail to adapt to the ever-changing business environment (Matsunaga, 2021). Retail executives’ specific challenges require practical knowledge to navigate the digital ecosystem and highlight the opportunities and challenges associated with digital transformation (Dutta & Sandhane, 2022). Executives struggle to hire the right employees, acquire new skills, and integrate new technologies into the business model (Ivancic et al., 2019).
The specific problem is that organizations are not leveraging digital media platforms, such as social media, search engine optimization, and e-commerce, can be used to reach customers and grow businesses, causing them not a be competitive and not be able to meet the demands of customers who want to shop in more convenience platforms that fit their lifestyles (Dutta & Sandhane, 2022). For example, businesses that do not have an online presence are at a disadvantage compared to businesses that do, as customers can easily compare prices and products online without having to visit multiple physical locations. Some statistics about companies with an online presence include that 36% of small-personal businesses are making sales online, 18% of local mobile searches convert to a sale within one day, companies with a blog experience 126% higher lead growth, and 29.7% of business conducted in the US is done online (Flynn, 2023).
Gap in Practice
The gap in practice is that retail executives need more practical knowledge to navigate the digital ecosystem and identify the opportunities and challenges associated with digital transformation. By leveraging digital tools, retail executives can better understand the competitive landscape, make more informed decisions, and maximize their potential for success. Digital transformation tasks necessitate ideation, intellectualization, decision-making, and negotiation. Teams utilize a variety of collaborative and interactive platforms and methods. The digital era has enabled businesses to improve the customer experience (Kudyba et al., 2020). As a result of this gap, executives need to understand the complexities of digital transformation better, incorporate customer-centered approaches into their strategies, and effectively manage the transition from traditional to digital businesses (Dutta & Sandhane, 2022; Fan et al., 2020). There needs to be more knowledge and skills among executives, particularly regarding how to navigate the digital ecosystem effectively, identify digital transformation opportunities, and address the challenges associated with digital transformation initiatives, as well as a need for strategies for managing digital transformation initiatives effectively (Cetindamar Kozanoglu & Abedin, 2021).
Among the implications for practice are the need to operationalize digital literacy at the organizational and individual levels of the organization and to make available to managers a tool for assessing the digital literacy of their employees (Cetindamar Kozanoglu & Abedin, 2021). Literature on innovation has emphasized the importance of employee participation in fostering innovation. Organizations must create a decision structure enabling employees to participate in organizational governance through institutionalized mechanisms such as workers’ congress, board-level representatives, and labor unions. (Fan et al., 2020). However, empowering employees starts with leading the team through change and having them be adaptable, which will help them rally to bring change, like digital transformation in retail.
Purpose of the Project and Project Questions
This qualitative inquiry project aims to explore how a high-performing leader uses leadership skills, and captions, to adapt and use digital transformation in their favor to boost propitiation and generate a competitive advantage. This project examines how exemplary leadership skills can leverage digital transformation that drives retail change and identifies the best practices to be more profitable. As a result of this project, a systematic literature review will be undertaken to evaluate leaders’ responses to digital transformation to achieve this objective. As a part of this review, I will examine the nexus between leadership, agility, and digital strategy to identify strategies for achieving effective digital transformation (AlNuaimi et al., 2022). This project analyzes the relationship between transformational leadership, customer satisfaction, and consensus in high-performing work systems (Weller et al., 2020) and how those skills can be leveraged by digital transformation.
For this project, two primary questions need to be answered:
What are retail executives’ leadership qualities and perspectives regarding leveraging digital transformation successfully?
What effective leadership strategies and motivations can be utilized to increase profitability and competitive advantage with digital transformation?
Preliminary Terms and Definitions
Digital Transformation: “Digital transformation” refers to using digital technologies to harness and optimize business processes, cultures, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market demands (Dutta & Sandhane, 2022).
High-Performance Work System: A high-performance work system is an approach to employee management that emphasizes the quality of work and individual abilities (Weller et al., 2020).
Retail Transformation: A digital revolution transforms retail business models, techniques, and strategies to remain competitive by utilizing digital innovations to redesign traditional retail business models, practices, and strategies (Ivancic et al., 2019).
Leadership Strategies: Executives use a method to manage a business and its employees to achieve company goals (Morgan, 2022).
Digital Literacy: To be more productive, workers need to have a high level of digital literacy and be able to interact with digital technologies efficiently, and as their digital literacy increases, they will be able to use digital technologies more effectively (Cetindamar Kozanoglu & Abedin, 2021).
Project Justification
The practice gap relating to digital transformation in the retail sector has been identified in this project. For retail executives to remain competitive, they must be able to navigate the digital ecosystem, identify digital transformation opportunities, and address digital transformation challenges related to leadership strategies (AlNuaimi et al., 2022). This project will examine how digital transformation drives retail transformation, identify best practices for implementing successful programs, and assess leaders’ responses to digital change by conducting a systematic literature review. To determine strategies for effective digital transformation, I will examine the nexus between leadership, agility, and digital design (AlNuaimi et al., 2022).
Further, based on practitioners, leadership strategies for creating competitive advantages in digital environments must be evaluated (Henderikx & Stoffers, 2022; AlNuaimi et al., 2022). The project will examine the relationship between transformational leadership, customer satisfaction, and consensus within high-performance work systems (Weller et al., 2020; Dutta & Sandhane, 2022). It is necessary to conduct a study of this nature so that retail executives can gain the knowledge and understanding they need to manage digital transformation initiatives effectively.
Author Note: Reflection on Alignment
Retail organizations must catch up to competitors with digital transformation, resulting in lower profitability and customer satisfaction. This is due to traditional retail strategies not keeping up with the convenience and accessibility of digital services. Businesses must adapt to the ever-changing business environment to stay caught up to competitors. Executives need help to hire the right employees, acquire new skills, and integrate new technologies into the business model. Companies with an online presence are disadvantaged compared to those without an online presence, as customers can easily compare prices and products online without visiting multiple physical locations.
Retail executives need more practical knowledge to navigate the digital ecosystem and identify the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation. This qualitative inquiry project aims to explore how a high-performing leader uses leadership skills, and captions, to adapt and use digital transformation in their favor to boost propitiation and generate a competitive advantage. A systematic literature review will evaluate leaders’ responses to digital transformation to achieve this objective. Two primary questions need to be answered: What are retail executives’ leadership qualities and perspectives regarding leveraging digital transformation successfully? What effective leadership strategies and motivations can be utilized to increase profitability and competitive advantage with digital transformation? The proposal examines how leadership strategies and behaviors can influence digital retail transformation, ultimately boosting profitability and innovation to be more competitive.
Figure 1
Visual of Business Project Idea
The Venn diagram (Figure 1) represents how the general problem, specific problem, gap in practice, purpose, and project questions align. The center of the chart represents the project’s purpose: to examine how leadership qualities influence digital transformation that drives the retail transformation to be more profitable and competitive. On one side of the center is the specific problem retail executives face. On the other is the business problem that retail organizations are losing to competitors due to digital transformation. The gap in practice refers to an overlap between the project’s purpose and the specific problem. The project’s questions are represented in an overlap between the goal of the project and the practice gap. The Venn diagram shows how the specific and general problems overlap and how the gap between practice and project questions overlaps. This project provides a solution for how organizations can leverage the right leadership behaviors to drive digital transformation.
Conclusion
Leaders in the digital era are addressing business challenges by integrating business and research data, studies, and company examples into their new business models. As economies become more global, digital transformation is essential for business success, and businesses must undergo digital transformation to remain competitive (Ivancic et al., 2019). Leaders must transition from managing to enabling, which entails leading by example and deeds. Businesses are experimenting with alternative business models to increase revenue streams in response to the disruption of the retail industry by artificial intelligence. Digital technology is essential to retail success in the modern era, as it can increase efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability (Gurbaxani & Dunkle, 2019). Retailers must remain ahead of the curve to remain competitive as technology and customer expectations evolve. This project proposal described how leadership members integrate digital transformation into their current processes and how retail executives can navigate the complex digital ecosystem. It will provide information on implementing best practices for digital transformation, such as customer- and employee-centric strategies, effective change management, and strong leadership. The value of digital transformation can only be realized if organizations understand how to leverage it to their advantage instead of making it an issue by making it a problem instead of leveraging it to their advantage.
References
Anthony, J. (2023). Seventy-four Amazon statistics you must know: 2023 Market Share Analysis & Data. Financesonline.com. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://financesonline.com/amazon-statistics/.
AlNuaimi, B. K., Kumar Singh, S., Ren, S., Budhwar, P., & Vorobyev, D. (2022). Mastering digital transformation: The nexus between leadership, agility, and digital strategy. Journal of Business Research, pp. 145, 636-648. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.038
Cetindamar Kozanoglu, D., & Abedin, B. (2021). Understanding the role of employees in digital transformation: Conceptualization of digital literacy of employees as a multi-dimensional organizational affordance. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 34(6), 1649-1672. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-01-2020-0010
Dosik, D., Bhalla, V., & Bailey, A. (2020). A Lot Will ChangeSo Must Leadership. (). Boston: Boston Consulting Group Boston, MA. Retrieved from ProQuest Central http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Freports%2Flot-will-change-so-must-leadership%2Fdocview%2F2492035069%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D27965.
Dutta, S., & Sandhane, R. (2022). Digital transformation in Retail Industry. Cardiometry, (24), 859-866. https://doi.org/10.18137/cardiometry.2022.24.859866
Fan, X.-L., Zhou, Y., Wang, C.-X., & Chang, X.-X. (2020). The Interactive Effect of Employee-Involved Governance and CEO Change-Oriented Leadership on Organizational Innovation: A Moderated Mediation Model. Group & Organization Management, 45(3), 417-455. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1177/1059601119862896
Flynn, J. (2023, March 1). Twenty incredible online business statistics [2023]. Zippia. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.zippia.com/advice/online-business-statistics/.
Gaubys, J. (2023). How many people will shop online in 2023? Oberlo. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-many-people-shop-online#:~:text=This%20makes%20up%2033.3%25%20of,year%2Dover%2Dyear%20increase.
Gurbaxani, V., & Dunkle, D. (2019). Gearing up for successful digital transformation. MIS Quarterly Executive, 18(3), 209-220. https://doi.org/10.17705/2msqe.00017. Executive, 18(3), 6.
Henderikx, M., & Stoffers, J. (2022). An Exploratory Literature Study into Digital Transformation and Leadership: Toward Future-Proof Middle Managers. Sustainability, 14(2), 687. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020687
Ivancic, L., Vukic, V., & Spremic, M. (2019). Mastering the Digital Transformation Process: Business Practices and Lessons Learned. Technology Innovation Management Review, 9(2). 36-50. http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1217
Kraus, S., Jones, P., Kailer, N., Weinmann, A., Chaparro-Banegas, N., & Roig-Tierno, N. (2021). Digital transformation: An overview of the current state of the art of research. SAGE Open, 11(3), 215824402110475. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211047576
Kudyba, S., Fjermestad, J., & Davenport, T. (2020). A research model for identifying factors that drive effective decision-making and the future of work. A research model for the future of work. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 21(6), 835-851. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-05-2019-0130
Matsunaga, M. (2021). Testing the theory of communication and uncertainty management in the context of digital transformation with transformational leadership as a moderator. International Journal of Business Communication (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), 232948842110239. https://doi.org/10.1177/23294884211023966
Morgan, B. (2022). Fifty stats that prove the value of customer experience. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/09/24/50-stats-that-prove-the-value-of-customer-experience/?sh=3d5249e04ef2.
Weller, I., Süß, J., Evanschitzky, H., & von Wangenheim, F. (2020). Transformational Leadership, High-Performance Work System Consensus, and Customer Satisfaction. Journal of Management, 46(8), 1469-1497. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1177/0149206318817605
