Context
The researchers use the name Kappa to protect the organisation’s identity. Kappa sold hardware to business customers. Its turnover was declining as online platforms changed how customers searched for and purchased products.
What Kappa did
Kappa launched an online platform. The platform gave the existing sales operation a digital channel, but it did not substantially redesign the organisation’s customer proposition or business model.
Observed outcome
The researchers reported poor adoption by both customers and employees. The platform therefore did not provide an adequate response to the competitive pressure described in the study. The paper classifies Kappa within an unsuccessful digital-service-innovation pathway.
Why the initiative underperformed
The initiative digitised the existing sales model without sufficiently changing the value offered to customers. It also failed to secure adoption among the people who had to use and support it. More technology would not, by itself, have resolved either problem.
What leadership should take from the case
Before approving a digital platform, leadership should define the changed customer need, the new value the platform will create and the operating changes required for adoption. A platform should be tested with real customers and employees before it is scaled.
What this means for infrastructure decisions
Technology should follow a defined business change. Independent review can help leadership distinguish between making an existing activity digital and creating a capability that genuinely responds to a changed market.
Source and evidence note
Soto Setzke, D., Riasanow, T., Böhm, M. & Krcmar, H. “Pathways to Digital Service Innovation: The Role of Digital Transformation Strategies in Established Organizations.” Information Systems Frontiers 25 (2023), 1017–1037. DOI: 10.1007/s10796-021-10112-0. Kappa case discussed on pp. 1027–1028.
Peer-reviewed multi-case research. The company identity is deliberately anonymised. This is not a ShivPriya engagement.