Dear Colleagues,

Digital transformation (DX) denotes the strategy of leveraging the opportunities of novel digital technologies and their implications on business performance. It is a complex, multi-faceted process that involves significant cultural shifts and changes that may impact every part of an organization. In particular, in the field of manufacturing, it has created a new digital ecosystem that not only provides a series of interconnected IT resources for enhancing manufacturing efficiency and quality but also leads to the creation of new business models. In this way, manufacturers can decrease the response time to the changing market requirements and customer demands, providing a better customer experience.

While IT companies are in the spotlight when it comes to digital transformation, DX is affecting organizations across all industrial sectors, from manufacturing to healthcare. Although many organizations have recognized the importance of digital transformation and increased tech investments to expand digital business initiatives, some still struggle to advance digital transformation. The implementation of DX can take very different forms depending on the functions being transformed and the challenges being addressed. There is a wide consensus that the longer you postpone the digital transformation, the more difficult it becomes to catch up with the competition. To ensure the sustainable growth of the manufacturing industry, leading organizations must go beyond simply building a digital infrastructure and develop future-ready technology strategies to capitalize on emerging opportunities. In many aspects, the current global pandemic has shown that digital transformation does not require years of planning, just a willingness to change and adapt.

Against such a background, we need better knowledge on the general technological development trends and technology management strategies associated with DX as well as factors affecting the adoption of DX. Revealing perceived challenges and advantages related to DX could help overcome the potential resistance associated with digital initiatives. Moreover, there is a pressing need to cope with the development of effective technology strategies for ensuring a smooth digital transition. An important question that arises is how technology management activities should be organized and interpreted for successful DX. What kind of policy perspectives should we outline to accelerate the DX? How can the adoption of technology management perspective help companies adopt a customer-centric DX approach? The answers to such questions require multidisciplinary efforts and the development of a novel analytical framework to efficiently tackle the related technology management issues.

This Special Issue, therefore, seeks to contribute to current issues and challenges of related to digital transformation by having a critical look at recent technology trends and strategies related to digital transformation. Discussion both at the level of technology strategy and operational/technological processes would provide targeted insights into balancing technological trialability and organizational compatibility. Moreover, this Special Issue should stimulate the debate between industry and policy makers for increasing policy coherence in facilitating DX.

In particular, we invite papers that address innovative technical developments, reviews, case studies, and analytical as well as assessment papers from interdisciplinary disciplines, which are relevant to fostering of digital transformation in manufacturing and beyond. Lastly, we put emphasis on better understanding how different technological strategies interact with each other to form a “successful” DX implementation strategy.

(Contributions are expected to include the keywords listed below, but further topics are welcome if they provide an interesting overview of trends and policy investigation relevant to digital transformation.)

Prof. Dr. Jeonghwan Jeon
Dr. Seunghwan Oh
Dr. Chie Hoon Song
Guest Editors

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• technology strategy
• technology policy
• technology management
• technology forecasting
• technology acceptance
• technology transfer
• digital transformation
• digital twin
• big data
• artificial intelligence
• smart manufacturing
• (virtual) manufacturing execution system
• manufacturing analytics
• Internet of Things
• digital platform
• autonomous system
• blockchain
• augmented and virtual reality
• metaverse