Business Strategy And Business Models Of Digital Enterprises In A Developing Economy: Conceptualizing The Link

ABSTRACT The rapid advances in digital technologies have led to the rising need for the development of strategies to harness its potential, especially in the field of Information Systems. Despite this growing importance, there is still a fuzzy understanding of what constitutes a comprehensive Digital Business Strategy (DBS) which encompasses the dominant dimensions of strategic actions in the digital economy. It is worthwhile to note that the digital business strategy transcends one functional area in businesses. In another breadth, most economic actors have difficulties in understanding the digital economy and are not always aware of the problems digital firms face. This difficulty has been attributed to the peculiarities of digital technologies and the specific characteristics of the digital economy. The above issues led to the conduct of this thesis which was guided by the critical realist paradigm to develop a theoretical digital business strategy framework which explains the value-creation strategic actions that underpin business models of digital enterprises in a developing economy. These include the four main dimensions of digital business strategy (Governance, Coordination, Competence and Flexibility). Based on this underpinning purpose and the gaps identified in existing research, the thesis sought to achieve three primary objectives. First, the study was set in motion through the conduct of a survey to explore the business models of the digital enterprises operating within Ghana’s digital economy. The findings suggest that among human, physical, and intangible assets, financial assets were the least utilized assets in the operations of the digital enterprises. This stems from the fact that the online financial business sector is still in its nascent stages in most developing economies. The findings further suggest that all digital enterprises leverage accessible and low-cost social networking services as part of their operations and use them as an avenue to engage with their target customers.Second, the study explored the strategic actions which underpin the business models of a digital enterprise selected as a case. The competitive environment of this digital enterprise - identified from the mapping study - was initially examined. This allowed for understanding the forces that influence the operations of the digital enterprise. The strategic actions of the digital enterprise were reviewed using the conceptual framework developed along the four dimensions of digital business strategy (governance, competence, coordination and flexibility) and guided by their corresponding strategic management theories. This culminated into the development of a comprehensive digital business strategy framework that explains the strategic actions that underpin the business models of digital enterprises in a developing economy. Finally, the dimensions of the strategic actions (governance, competence, coordination and flexibility) underpinning the business model of an informal digital enterprise in a developing economy were determined as the firm grew from the start-up stage to the maturity stage. Findings culminated into the development of a comprehensive digital business strategy framework for the growth of the digital enterprise. The novelty of the study is its ability to combine four strategic management theories on strategy in a single research to develop a digital business strategy framework for determining the survival and growth of the digital enterprise in a developing country. Also, the mapping of digital enterprises in Ghana is arguably the first study on modelling the digital economy of a developing country. This thesis moved beyond contributing to academia, practice and policy into carrying out patentable products which have also already been making strides in the digital economy of Ghana and globally. Two of these products are notable of mention in this abstract. In the first place, an online database has been developed based on the mapping of digital enterprises in Ghana. In response to the lack of a single database for digital enterprises in Ghana, an online database named “http://dbizbase.com/” has been developed. This database serves as a one-stop-shop for information concerning digital enterprises in Ghana. Second, a research paper was published in 2019, Volume 21, edition 2 of the Journal of Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance. The journal is ranked by the Association of Business Schools (ABS) and Scopus. This article was developed from the first research objective, which sought to model the digital economy of Ghana. The article was titled "Surviving in the digital era– business models of digital enterprises in a developing economy" which according to google scholar citation metrics has so far been cited 11 times one month after publication. The DOI number is 10.1108/DPRG-08-2018-0046. Keywords: Digital Business Strategy; Digital Enterprises; Digital Economy; Developing Economy; Critical Realism; Digital Entrepreneurship