Strategy archetypes for digital transformation: Defining meta objectives using business process management

TLDR

Digital transformation is a central topic, yet many firms—especially SMEs—lack clear plans due to limited resources and expertise. The study investigates how five companies employ business process management to drive digital transformation. A qualitative interview study examined BPM capabilities against six digital‑transformation requirements. The authors present 17 tailored recommendations and three strategy archetypes that serve as implementation blueprints.

Abstract

Digital transformation dominates the practical and scientific discourse. Still, many companies do not have a clear plan on how to approach it. Particularly, small- and medium-sized enterprises struggle to initiate their digital journey as they lack resources and expertise. In response, we examine how five companies use business process management (BPM) to implement digital transformation. We perform a qualitative interview study, and analyze the capabilities of BPM based on six requirements of digital transformation. Thereby, we carve out 17 recommendations, which must be adapted according to companies’ meta objectives. We derive three strategy archetypes to serve as implementation blueprints.