DI-GEST project background and objectives
Within the framework of the new funding line "Research Colleges Rhineland-Palatinate", the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science is funding the Research College "DI-GEST - Designing Digitisation" for three years. Since the end of 2019, three research teams, each consisting of one chair at JGU and one at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, have been researching organization-specific identification and evaluation of the potential of digital technologies and their implementation.
This takes place in the context that digital technologies lead to major disruptive changes in the private sector, public institutions and civil society. Digital tools are becoming increasingly powerful and are often available at low cost. They offer a wide range of opportunities, but also entail risks, which, among other things, redefine existing value chains and allow new competitors with innovative IT-based business models to enter the market.
The objective of the project is to investigate how companies and public institutions can best shape digitization in order to identify the opportunities and risks of new digital technologies in good time and to make optimal use of them through targeted change processes.
The investigations focus on three overarching dimensions:
- Theories of digital transformation
- Technology-driven transformation of decision-making processes
- Application-driven transformation of utilization processes
Research background and research questions
In the digital age, it is crucial for organizations to identify and adapt to new developments and exploit new opportunities as market environments become more volatile. The emergence of existing and emerging technologies has caused changes in market structures, competition, and the interaction of market participants. These changes have led to new ways of gaining competitive advantage, creating value, and designing business models. In this process, it is essential to have the ability to search for changes in the company's environment to identify and capitalize on opportunities, and also transform the existing business.
In two current research projects, we focus on two distinct research questions regarding sensing and scanning capabilities in the management context:
- Research landscape of sensing capabilities: What do we know about sensing capabilities and sensing-related concepts in the digital age?
- Motivational factors of individuals' scanning behavior: How do personality-traits, the use of IT applications, and firm-level motivation schemes influence the scanning behavior of individuals?
Approach
In project 1, we analyze the current research landscape and review 116 publications on sensing-related concepts with focus on the digital age. With this project we provide an overview of sensing and related concepts and a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and its nomological net covered in extant literature. In project 2, we use data from a multiple administration survey of employees across all hierarchical levels to hypothesize and test whether and how certain personality-traits, their use of IT applications, and given motivational schemes influence their scanning behavior.
Project publications and presentations
Woelke, S., & Tumasjan, A. (2023). Sensing in the Digital Age: A Systematic Review of Sensing and Related Concepts. 83rd Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2023.18207abstract
Project member