Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water

industry

Research Paper
Digitalization in the process industries –
Evidence from the German water industry
Marius Stoffels* and Christian Ziemer**
* Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität Münster
** Siemens AG, Process Industries and Drives Division; Head of the working group "Water 4.0" at
GWP; http://www.germanwaterpartnership.de/arbeitskreise/wasser-40/index.htm

DOI: 10.17879/20249613743; URN: urn:nbn:de:hbz: 6-20249618798

Research on the adoption of digital technologies has largely omitted the process
industries. In this study, we address this research gap by presenting empirical evi-
dence from a questionnaire survey comprising 86 responses from members of the
German Water Partnership (GWP) association. Our results indicate that firms in the
water industry lay emphasis on projects harnessing digital technologies, while the
execution and implementation still faces significant challenges that we discuss
below. Correlation analysis reveals that firms that have interlaced conventional busi-
ness strategy with IT strategy stronger prioritize the development new business
models in the course of digitalization than their counterparts who do not have a
digital business strategy. Due to the new ways of value creation, delivery, and cap-
ture enabled by digital technologies, we evaluate the usefulness of a concept named
the layered modular product architecture in context of the process industries and
relate it to the need for developing a digital business strategy. We close this article
by deducing several implications for managers.

1 Introduction 2017; Tripsas, 2009). In contrast to prior innovations

that were primarily bound to physical devices, new
Recent developments in digital technologies products are increasingly embedded into systems
bring about considerable business opportunities of value creation that span the physical and digi-
but also impose significant challenges on firms in tal world (Parmar et al., 2014; Rigby, 2014; Yoo et al.,
all industries. While some industries, e.g., newspa- 2010a). On this new playing field, firms and
pers, have already profoundly reorganized the mech- researchers are jointly interested in the organiza-
anisms of value creation, delivery, and capture dur- tional characteristics and capabilities that are
ing the course of digitalization (Karimi & Walter, required to gain a competitive advantage (e.g. Fink,
2015, 2016), many process-oriented and asset inten- 2011). Whereas prior studies cover the effect of dig-
sive industries have not yet fully evaluated and ital transformation on innovation in various indus-
exploited the potential applications (Rigby, 2014). tries like newspaper (Karimi and Walter, 2015, 2016),
Although the process industries have successfully automotive (Henfridsson and Yoo, 2014; Svahn et
used advancements in technologies to optimize al., 2017), photography (Tripsas, 2009), and manu-
processes in the past (Kim et al., 2011), digitaliza- facturing (Jonsson et al., 2008), there is a relative
tion poses an unprecedented shift in technology dearth of studies that cover the impact of digital
that exceeds conventional technological evolution transformation in the process industries (Wester-
(Svahn et al., 2017). Driven by augmented process- gren and Holmström, 2012).
ing power, connectivity of devices (IoT), advanced The process industries are characterized by asset
data analytics, and sensor technology, innovation and research intensity, strong integration into phys-
activities in the process industries now break away ical locations, and often include value chains that
from established innovation paths (Svahn et al., are complex and feature aspects of rigidity (Lager

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Marius Stoffels and Christian Ziemer

et al., 2013). Multiple sectors like the chemical indus- nance towards predictive maintenance. In the lat-
try, water industry, food and beverage, generic phar- ter, a network of connected sensors enables plant
maceuticals, utilities, as well as forest and steel fall operators to determine the residual life distribu-
into this category (Lager et al., 2013). Under condi- tion of a system’s critical components in order to
tions of rapid environmental developments like optimize the maintenance schedule and improve
technological advancements, the process indus- the overall reliability of the system (Kaiser and
tries’ ability to respond to change is often limited Gebraeel, 2009). This kind of innovation affects
in the short term (Lager et al., 2013). socio-technical structure. For example, reliable
In many countries, industry associations drive water supply systems have a tremendous impact
discussions about digitalization. In allusion to the on social life and also affect the economic prosper-
concept of “Industry 4.0” the German Water Part- ity of entire regions (United Nations Report, 2016).
nership (GWP) association defines the term “Water In the transformation process of digitalization,
4.0” as the application of digital technologies for practitioners and scholars alike are specifically inter-
the evolution of holistic cyber-physical-systems ested in how the system of value creation and cap-
that enable efficient, real-time monitored, and reli- ture is changing (Barua et al., 2004). In this regard,
able water supply with a maximum amount of a growing stream of empirical research focusses
transparency for producers and users [italics added on the impact of digital technologies on value cre-
by authors] (GWP, 2016, p.4). In order to evaluate ation through new product development (Marion,
how members of GWP translate the notion of Water et al., 2015). In this regard, the changing nature of
4.0 into their business reality, in this study we inves- product architectures is presented as a major chal-
tigate the water industry’s status quo in digitali- lenge for innovation managers (Yoo et al., 2012; Yoo
zation. et al., 2010) but also entails tremendous business
In this paper, we pursue several objectives. First, opportunities (Rigby, 2014).
we introduce the concept of the layered modular
product architecture into the process industries 2.1 The layered modular architecture of digital
and discuss its applicability. Second, we present technology
descriptive data from a questionnaire survey con-
ducted within the GWP to provide an overview of Product designs can be described following two
key digitalization priorities and challenges. Third, types of product architecture: integral and modu-
we analyze the relationship between digital busi- lar (Henderson and Clark, 1990; Sanchez and
ness strategy and a firm’s propensity to engage in Mahoney, 1996; Ulrich, 1995). While an integral prod-
business model innovation in more detail. Finally, uct architecture is characterized by tightly coupled
we discuss how business model innovation is relat- elements that are highly interdependent and aim
ed to a layered modular product architecture and at optimizing the product as a whole, a modular
conclude with implications for practitioners. architecture is defined by standardized interfaces
that allow for facile exchanges of the components,
2 Digitalization in the water industry – A which, in turn, enables changes in the functional-
new innovation logic for the digital age ity of the product (Ulrich, 1995; Yoo et al., 2010a).
Modular products are therefore popular in envi-
The interchangeable use of the terms digitali- ronments that require high levels of flexibility. In
zation and digitization is misleading in the debate a new organizing logic that is driven by an increas-
about digital transformation. To clarify the mean- ing implementation of digital technologies into
ing of digitalization and distinguish it from digiti- physical products, additional layers of value cre-
zation, a group of renowned information systems ation emerge that uncouple the functionality of a
scholars refer to digitalization as “the transforma- product from its physical components (Yoo et al.,
tion of socio-technical structures that were previ- 2010a). As illustrated in Table 1, the additional lay-
ously mediated by non-digital artifacts or relation- ers comprise a network layer, a service layer, and a
ships into ones that are mediated by digitized arti- contents layer that build on top of the physical
facts and relationships. Digitalization goes beyond device (Yoo et al., 2010a). Each layer fulfills differ-
a mere technical process of encoding diverse types ent functions in the product architecture. As Yoo
of analog information in digital format (i.e., “digi- et al. (2010a) delineate, the device layer includes a
tization”) and involves organizing new socio-tech- physical machinery layer (e.g. hardware compo-
nical structures with digitized artifacts as well as nents) and a logical capability layer (e.g. operating
the changes in artifacts themselves” (Yoo et al., system) that provide control over the physical device
2010b, p. 6). An example for digitalization-driven and enable connections to other layers. Similarly,
changes of socio-technical structures in the process the network layer consists of two layers, one for
industries is the transition from reactive mainte- physical transport (cables, pipes, transmitters, etc.)

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Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water
industry

Table 1 Layered modular architecture of digitally enhanced products (Source: Based on Yoo et al., 2010, p. 727).

Layered modular Example 1: Example 2:

product architecture Mobile phone Industrial pumps

Pictures, viseos, text, user Data from sensors, ownership,

Contents layer profiles, copyright, geo-time copyright, encoding methods,
stamps, etc. etc.

Telephony and applications: Water pressure and

Service layer social media, route planner, transportation, predictive
voice recognition, etc maintenance, etc.

Network layer ▀ Logical trensmission: ▀ Logical transmission: TCP /

UMTS / LTE IP
▀ Physical transportation: ▀ Physical transportation:
Logical transmission Chargimg cable pipes and cables
Physical transportation

▀ Logical capability: the

operating system (e.g. ▀ Logical capability: opera-
Device layer android, iOS, windows) ting system
▀ Physical machinery: ▀ Physical macinery: physi-
Logical capability mobile phone hardware cal components inclu-
i.e. display, speakers, ding microelectronics
Physical machinery microphone, processor, (processors, sensors, etc.)
etc.

and one for logical transmission (e.g. TCP/IP, peer- engagement in services and platforms that are
2-peer). In the service layer all functionalities are offered as complementary values to the initial phys-
bundled into an interface that serves the user (e.g. ical product, firms find themselves competing and
mobile applications, addressable pump in an oper- collaborating on new layers of the product archi-
ating system). This layer is supplied by the overar- tecture, possibly facing novel competitive land-
ching contents layer that stores all data (text, video, scapes (Bharadwaj et al., 2013a). The environment
sound, etc.) and metadata (copyright, geo-tags, of rapidly evolving technologies requires continu-
etc.). ous reflection about the firm’s position in the net-
The evolution from integral to modular prod- work of value-creation, which draws attention to
uct architectures enabled innovators to create new the importance of strategic partnerships which
products by combining modules in novel ways. enable the leveraging of network resources to boost
Today, the layered modular architecture of digital- firm performance (Lavie, 2006). Regarding the posi-
ly enhanced products provides firms with the oppor- tioning of firms in value networks, Pagani (2013)
tunity to innovate and compete on each layer large- proposes that firms who position themselves at
ly without affecting offers on other layers. But still, what she refers to as control points i.e. the posi-
the layered architecture invites firms to offer inte- tions of greatest value and/or power in a system,
grated solutions that span more than one layer to are able to influence how profits are allocated and
leverage synergies between them. For example, a eventually obtain a competitive advantage. In a
device producer might profit from offering solu- layered modular architecture, each layer compris-
tions on the content layer in order to learn how es its own control points that distinguish the suc-
clients use their content with the objective to fur- cess between firms competing or collaborating on
ther adapt the device to the clients’ needs. the same layer. Collaborating with firms that hold
Although being primarily applied in industries control points on different levels of the architec-
that fabricate electronic products, the layered mod- ture might result in complementary resource con-
ular product architecture also proves useful for the figurations and, thus, unlock new market opportu-
process industries, in which products are often raw nities. Throughout all actions that a firm pursues
materials rather than digital savvy components in this product architecture, alignment between
(Lager et al., 2013). However, due to the increasing innovation activities and the position in the value

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Marius Stoffels and Christian Ziemer

network should be considered. In the course of dig- ther bring over 17 years of industry experience, while
italization, ensuring organizational alignment they spent 13.5 years in the company they current-
between internal activities and the external envi- ly work for.
ronmental circumstances is a task for strategic We operationalized our measurements as fol-
management, which is why firms should have a lows. In order to evaluate the current key aspects
digital business strategy. of digitalization in the water industry, we draw on
a survey previously conducted by Siemens among
2.2 The role of digital business strategy its clients in Germany and adapted the wording of
some items (Siemens, 2014). Concerning digital
During the last decades, IT strategy has been transformation, the survey covers the topics of firm
subordinate to, and in the best case, in alignment priorities, potential benefits, internal and external
with conventional business strategy (Bharadwaj resistance, and digital business strategy. Respon-
et al., 2013a). Over a long period of time, influential dents evaluated firm priorities on a seven-point
decision makers perceived information technolo- Likert scale offering continuous degrees of impor-
gy as a supporting factor that was not designed to tance: 1 = very important to 7 = not important at
Research &
grant a competitive advantage over competitors, all. Potential benefits as well as internal and exter-
Development
and therefore neglected it as an integral compo- nal sources of resistance were equally assessed on
nent of business strategy at the corporate level. In a Likert scale using a range of agreement from 1 =
recent years, products have increasingly become fully agree to 7 = fully disagree. We were also inter-
digitally connected and are now able to be embed- ested in how far respondent firms had formulat-
ded into systems of value creation that exceed phys- ed a digital business strategy, for which we offered
ical boundaries (Rigby, 2014). Scholars argue that four different choices: 0 = No response, 1 = No, 2 =
IT, and, more specifically, an integrated IT strategy Yes, partially, 3 = Yes. Further, we investigated who
has become a potential source of competitive advan- was responsible for developing a digital business
tage (Bharadwaj et al., 2013a; Bharadwaj et al., 2013b; strategy and assessed if the respondents’ firms had
Pagani, 2013). In this context, digital business strat- set up a central unit for digitalization related issues.
egy refers to an “organizational strategy formulat- Additionally, we performed Spearman’s rank order
ed and executed by leveraging digital resources to correlation between the perceived importance of
create differential value” (Bharadwaj et al., 2013a, business model innovation and the degree to which
p. 472). Due to the new technological and person- a digital business strategy exists. The results were
nel requirements and the uncertain returns that calculated using SPSS version 23.
the implementation of digital technologies bring
about, formulating a digital business strategy can 4 Results
produce internal consistency between digital trans-
formation activities. In this study, we therefore In order to assure the fit of our findings with
investigate how many firms in our sample have the water industry’s general perspective on digi-
developed a digital business strategy and who is talization, we included all respondents in our analy-
in charge of it. sis. Although we herewith accept answers from
heterogeneous industry segments in our data set,
3 Methodology this approach has the advantage of retaining a
broad scope of perspectives and therefore con-
Data collection was performed among mem- tributes to a more holistic view on the state of dig-
bers of the German Water Partnership (GWP), which italization in the water industry. In the descriptive
includes original equipment manufacturers, plant representations below, the graphs consider the top
operators, consultancies, construction firms, chem- two boxes from the Likert scale i.e. “important” and
ical providers, research institutes, and financing “very important”.
partners. GWP forwarded our questionnaire sur-
vey to one contact person inside each of the 350 4.1 Digital transformation priorities
member companies and reminded them with two
mails to participate. After five weeks, 86 respon- First, respondents classified which functions or
dents completed the survey, resulting in a response purposes they address with digital technologies
rate of 24.6% calculated in relation to the number and which of them are most relevant for their firm.
of members in the association. Respondents main- According to the results depicted in Figure 1, more
ly hold the position of chief executive officer, head than two third of all respondents prioritized visu-
of department, and related functions that qualify alization and transparency, process automation
them as appropriate respondents for the topics and standardization, and data extraction from
covered in this survey. On average, respondents fur- machines and sensors as key functional areas that

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Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water
industry

Figure 1 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”
(Source: Own representation).

How important are the following aspects of

digitalization for your company?

VISUALIZATION AND TRANSPARENCY 72%

PROCESS AUTOMATION AND STANDARDIZATION... 70%

READING DATA OUT OF MACHINES / SENSORS 69%

RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION (TIME, PERSONNEL,...) 66%
PRODUCT LIFECYCLE INFORMATION (OEMS) 63%
DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL BUSINESS MODELS / SERVICES 60%
INTERFACES WITH CLIENTS AND END CONSUMERS 59%

TOTALLY INTEGRATED DIGITAL PROCESSES 57%

CONNECTED INTERFACES (MACINES, SUPPLIERS, ETC.) 55%

MODELLING AND SIMULATION (SUPPORT SYSTEMS) 49%
MAPPING OF BUSINESS PROCESSES (TRANSPARENCY) 42%

INTEGRAL EVALUATION OF THE WATER CYCLE (PLANT... 40%

Figure 2 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”.
(Source: Own representation).

Which trends are currently important for

your business environment?

SOFTWARE AND APPS ( DEVELOPMENT AND

64%
USE OF DIGITAL SOLUTIONS)
CONNECTIVITY / INTERNET OF THINGS (CONNECTING
HUMANS, MACHINES, PRODUCTS) 61%
MOBILE APPLICATIONS (MOBILE INTEGRATION OF BUSINESS AND
PRODUCTION PROCESSES AS WELL AS THE SERVICE BUSIMESS 57%

BIG / SMART DATA & ADVANCED ANALYTICS 48%

CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEMS (SOFTWARE, 47%

ELECTRONICS, MECHANICS)
SMART WORLDS (SUCH AS SMART FACTORIES,
38%
SMART GRID, SMART BUILDINGS)

CLOUD COMPUTING (E.G. SOFTWARE LICENSES) 37%

are currently addressed. Companies further under- respondents’ firm environment. Most notably, the
line the optimization of resources and the use dig- development of software and apps is a major topic
ital solutions to gain transparency in their product in conjunction with machine connectivity i.e. the
lifecycles. internet of things, and mobile applications that
Figure 2 presents the major digitalization-relat- enable the integration of production processes with
ed trends that are currently important for the other functional areas. Further, cloud computing

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Marius Stoffels and Christian Ziemer

Figure 3 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”.
(Source: Own representation).

What are potential benefits of digitalization for your company?

IMPROVEMENT OF SERVICE PROCESSES 71%

NEW BUSINESS MODELS (E.G. SERVICE) 69%

INCREASED RESOURCE EFFICIENCY 68%

INCREASED ENERGY EFFICIENCY 63%
QUALITY IMPROVEMENTS 63%
IMPROVED COLLABORATION / SYNERGIES 61%
BETTER CLIENT ORIENTATION 60%

HIGHER TRANSPARENCY (BUSINESS PROCESSES; ETC.) 56%

IMPROVED DECISION MAKING 56%

BETTER ECOBALANCE 38%
OPEN INNOVATION CULTURE 30%
TIME-TO-MARKET 29%

Figure 4 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”.
(Source: Own representation).

What would you have to do or what would you need to have in

place in order to be able to drive implememntation further?

INTEGRATION AND / OR FURTHER TRAINING 71%

OF EMPLOYEES
ENABLING COMPARABILITY OF AVAILABLE DATA 70%

IMPROVED DATA SECURITY 66%

ANCHORIZING OF DIGITALIZATION AS A PROCESS:
ANALYZING, PLANNING, CONTROLLING AND AND VERIFYING 65%
GREATER EMBEDDING OF DIGITALIZATION INTO THE
CORPORATE STRATEGY 64%
ECONOMIC FEASABILITY STUDY AND / OR IMPROVED
COST TRANSPARENCY
61%
BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF METHODS FOR 58%
ANALYZING AND ADAPTING PROCESSES
GREATER KNOWLEDGE OF FUTURE MARKET 57%
REQUIREMENTS AND OF TRADE FORECASTS

ASSESSMENT OF SUCCESSES / FAILURES SO FAR 49%

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Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water
industry

is perceived as an important digital solution in the made compatible between applications and plat-
business environment by 37% of respondents. forms (70%) and improved data security (66%) is
supposed to increase confidence in the application
4.2 Potential benefits of digital transformation of digital technologies. Implementing digitaliza-
tion as a process of analyzing, planning, directing,
By engaging in digital transformation, GWP and controlling/verifying is perceived to be an addi-
members aim to achieve various benefits for their tional driver (65%). Respondent firms acknowledge
companies, which are shown in Figure 3. Accord- that digitalization needs to be further included in
ing to the results, more than two out of three business strategy (64%) and support that evalua-
respondents expect to improve their service process- tion of prior successful and failed projects might
es. Further, the participating companies see digi- support implementation of digitalization.
talization as a means for developing new business
models and gaining higher resource and energy 4.3 Resistance to digital transformation
efficiency. In addition, digitalization of communi-
cation and interaction between parties is expect- Besides the drivers and enabling technologies
ed to not only increase collaboration efficiency but for digital transformation, we assessed the most
also enhance the relationship between firms and influential internal and external barriers. As Figure
their clients by enabling stronger client orienta- 5 indicates, the most important internal barriers
tion (60%). The unprecedented amount of avail- are unclear benefits (49%), ambiguous IT specifi-
able data enables firms to gain higher process trans- cations (47%), and a lack of sufficient internal know-
parency (56%), which, in turn, facilitates manage- how for planning and implementation (45%). Fear
rial decision-making (56%). Respondents have lower of data theft is a considerable impediment for one
expectations when it comes to increasing environ- third of the companies in our sample.
mental performance, establishing an open inno- The barriers that reside within the organiza-
vation culture, and shortening time-to-market. tions’ external environment are summarized in Fig-
Figure 4 summarizes which circumstances would ure 6. Most prominent in this respect is the lack of
facilitate the implementation of digital technolo- technical standardization (55%). The following two
gies. In this context, 71% of all firms agree that the barriers, namely the missing demand for digital
training and inclusion of employees is the most rel- solutions from customers and suppliers (51%), and
evant shortcoming. In addition, data should be the perception that the market is not ready yet (48)

Figure 5 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”.
(Source: Own representation).

Which internal barriers hold you back from making even greater use of
digital technologies and processes at your company?

UNCLEAR BENEFITS (LACK OF AN ECONOMIC FEASABILITY STUDY,ETC.) 49%

UNFLEXIBLE, HETEROGENEOUS IT SPECIFICATIONS 47%

NOT ENOUGH KNOW-HOW FOR CONCEPTUAL PLANNING 45%

AND / OR IMPLEMENTATION

FINANCING OF TECHNOLOGIES / SOFTWARE 43%

COMPANY STRUCTURE / CULTURE 43%

DIFFICULTIES OF INTEGRATING NEW TECHNOLOGIES / SOFTWARE 43%

(COMPLEX TOOL LANDSCAPE)

OPERATING COSTS (LICENSES AND SOFTWARE UPDATES) 41%

FEAR OF DATA THEFT 33%

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Marius Stoffels and Christian Ziemer

Figure 6 Assessed as belonging to the top two categories: “very important” and “important”.
(Source: Own representation).

Which external barriers hold you back from making even greater use of
digital technologiesand processes at your company?

LACK OF TECHNICAL STANDARDIZATION 55%

MARKET IS NOT READY YET 51%

NO DEMAND FOR IT FROM CUSTOMERS OR SUPPLIERS 48%

DISCUSSIONS RELATED TO DATA SECURITY
(SUCH AS THE NSA SCANDAL) 46%

LACK OF LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 42%

DISCUSSION WITHIN THE INDUSTRY ASSOCIATIONS
IS JUST BEGINNING
37%
TECHNOLOGIES / SOFTWARE ARE NOT SUITED 31%
FOR THIS PURPOSE

suggest that producers and clients in the water 52% of responses, the executive board is responsi-
industry are more hesitant to apply digital tech- ble for creating a digital business strategy in col-
nologies when being compared to other industries laboration with IT experts. In addition, 15% have
(Siemens, 2014). The unsatisfying progress in dis- established a digitalization team to implement dig-
cussions within associations and the lack of a legal italization as a process into the company while in
and regulatory framework are moderately impor- other firms corporate strategy (6%), the executive
tant barriers. Only 31% of respondents think that board alone (6%), IT (5%), and others (15%) are
technology itself is the bottleneck for implemen- responsible for this task.
tation.
4.5 Correlation analysis
4.4 Digital business strategy
With the aim to explore the relationship
In order to assess whether our respondents were between digital business strategy and the propen-
sufficiently knowledgeable to be considered for sity to engage in business model innovation in more
further analysis, we analyzed their functions in the detail, we performed an additional correlation analy-
company in a key respondent check. According to sis. As we use both ordinal and continuous scales
the respondents’ position in the company, respon- for our measures, we use Spearman’s rank order
dents mainly hold top-level management func- correlation and present the results in Table 2. To
tions but also middle management and other func- perform correlation analysis, we used the degree
tions that account for substantial knowledgeable to which firms have formulated a digital business
about the firm’s strategy are included in the analy- strategy (DBS) as well as indicators for the willing-
sis. Figure 7 depicts the number of firms in the sam- ness to pursue business model innovation (BMI).
ple that have completely or partially formulated a The latter includes “Development of digital busi-
digital business strategy. The responses show that ness models / services” (BMI1) from the list of dig-
while half of the firms have partially formulated a italization opportunities in Figure 1, and “New busi-
digital business strategy only 11% have already ness models (e.g. service)” (BMI2) from the list of
accomplished this task. Besides 10% of non-report- digitalization priorities in Figure 2. Further, we
ed answers, 28% of the companies in the sample include the number of employees and the firm age.
have not yet developed a strategy that integrates We find that having a digital business strategy has
digital transformation objectives. a weak/moderate positive correlation with priori-
In a consecutive question not shown in the fig- tizing business model innovation as an opportunity
ure, we were interested who is responsible for for- (ρ=.373; p<0.01) and internal priority (ρ=.369; p<0.01).
mulating the digital strategy for the company. In

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Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water
industry

Figure 7 Degrees to which firms have formulated a digital business strategy (Source: own representation).

Do You Have a Digital Business Strategy?

100%
10%
28%
90%

80%

70%
51%
60%

50%

40%

30%

20%
11%
10%

0%
Yes Yes, partially No Not reported

Table 2 Spearman’s rank order correlation matrix (Source: Own representation).

Measures Mean SD Min Max 1 2 3 4 5

1. DBS 1.81 0.64 1 3 3
2. BMI 1 5.51 1.50 1 7 .373** 1
3. BMI 2 5.74 1.38 1 7 .369** .527** 1
4. Employees 2.29 1.21 1 5 .242 .197 .202 1
5. Firm age 3.38 1.20 1 5 .022 .079 .045 .640** 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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Marius Stoffels and Christian Ziemer

ogy adoption is a function of the technology’s per-

5 Discussion ceived usefulness and ease of use (Venkatesh &
Davis, 2016). Coining an organizational culture that
In the German water industry, digital technolo- embraces technological advancements with curios-
gies are regarded as important drivers for achiev- ity and playfulness is the duty of top-level man-
ing superior results in diverse functional areas. In agement, while communication of achievements
congruence with the concept Water 4.0 the gath- and use-cases throughout the company might fos-
ering, transmission, and analysis of homogenized ter the perceived usefulness.
data is used for process automation, optimization, Digital technologies offer numerous opportu-
and improved decision making, among others. As nities for business model innovation. Formulating
the results from our study indicate, firms in our a digital business strategy might serve as a start-
sample consider efficiency-related innovations as ing point for developing novel business models
important cornerstones of digitalization, but at the that might even be multi-sided. Multisided busi-
same time acknowledge novel business opportu- ness models are not only interesting for digital lead-
nities. Specifically, offering new services and devel- ers (e.g. Google, Facebook, YouTube) but for almost
oping novel business models are important objec- every other company. The multi-sidedness of a busi-
tives. In this concern, correlation analysis revealed ness model can be perceived as a firms ability to
that developing new business models is more capture value from one business through various
important to firms that have formulated a digital revenue streams, possibly residing within differ-
business strategy. As a business model can be best ent layers of the product architecture. In the exam-
described by the process of value creation, deliv- ple of an industrial pump, the manufacturer might
ery, and capture (Teece, 2010) it is evident that in generate sales not only by selling the pump (device
the course of digitalization the business model of layer) but also by offering additional value like pre-
almost every industry will encounter significant dictive maintenance as a service, which, in turn, is
changes in one or all of the three dimensions. Only nurtured from the content layer through analyz-
through formulation of a digital business strategy ing a continuous stream of real-time data (Bharad-
that aligns digitalization efforts across multiple waj et al., 2013a).
organizational functions, firms will be able to sus- Evidence from academic literature highlights
tain advantages that were gained through busi- the importance of customer and supplier readiness
ness model innovation, as business models are suf- for increasing firm performance through digitali-
ficiently generative and easy to imitate (Teece, zation (Barua et al., 2004). Respondents in our study
2010). indicate that a lack of market readiness (51%) and
Car manufacturer Volvo has demonstrated the customer demand (48%) are major barriers for
value of developing a digital business strategy in implementation of digital technologies. This rais-
its “connected cars” initiative from 2010, in which es the question in how far firms should engage in
they included guidelines for the use of platforms developing innovative digital solutions in the face
and cloud technology (Svahn et al., 2017). Despite of uncertain market conditions. As digitalization is
the success in transformation, the profound imple- a basic technology that affects all industries (Bryn-
mentation of digital technologies into Volvo’s DNA jolfsson and McAfee, 2014) it is only a matter of
made the car manufacturer experience organiza- time until the entire market will be more familiar
tional resistance that was caused by a shift in orga- with digital solutions. Until then, firms that devel-
nizational culture and identity (Svahn et al., 2017; op viable digital solutions might be able to profit
Tripsas, 2009). In a study based in the camera indus- from the early stage in the technology life cycle
try, Tripsas (2009) concludes that coping with and strengthen their strategic position in this field.
changes in firm identity can be catalyzed by firm The development of holistic and integrated solu-
strategies that connect the use of novel technolo- tions requires most firms to engage in collabora-
gies to internal capabilities, routines, and beliefs. tion with partner firms, because companies rarely
In the GWP, the majority of firms state that cover all relevant layers in the digital product archi-
investments in integration and training of employ- tecture on their own. Harnessing the resources of
ees (71%) would accelerate the implementation of alliance partners i.e. network resources can provide
digital technologies. At the same time, 45% indi- firms with a competitive advantage and is a pow-
cate that internal know-how about new technolo- erful tool for firms in uncertain environmental con-
gies is not sufficient. The numbers support the ditions (Lavie, 2006). An example for this is the col-
impression that the speed of technology develop- laboration of the utility company Eon and Google
ment is faster than what organizations are able or who together provide solar energy solutions for
willing to implement. Research on technology real estates in Germany. While the locally estab-
acceptance delineates that the speed of technol- lished company Eon is responsible for the hard-

Journal of Business Chemistry 2017, 14 (3) 103 © Journal of Business Chemistry

Digitalization in the process industries – Evidence from the German water
industry

ware, Google’s satellite data has all the informa-

tion about the sun exposure of roofs. Potential cus- 8 Acknowledgements
tomers are thus able to get a realistic calculation
of the power generated by potential solar panels We would like to speak out our special thanks
on their roofs. The joint service combines the hard- to the German Water Partnership (GWP) for their
ware competence from a local incumbent (device support during the conception and data gathering
layer) with meteorological and geographical data phase of this study. The GWP is a joint initiative of
(content layer) into a convenient user experience. the German private and public sectors, combining
Eventually, Eon’s and Google’s complementarity of commercial enterprises, government and non-gov-
resources on different levels of the product archi- ernment organizations, scientific institutions and
tecture enables them to unlock new revenue water-related associations. The fundamental aim
streams. of the GWP is to make the outstanding German
engineering, know-how and experience in the water
6 Managerial implications sector easily available to partners and clients all
over the world (for further information visit
This study provides several implications for man- http://www.germanwaterpartnership.de/).
agers. First, firms that do not have a digital busi- Furthermore, we would also like to thank our
ness strategy yet, should start to align and inte- interview partners for their valuable feedback and
grate IT strategy and business strategy to tackle insightful comments.
implementation of digital technologies in a struc-
tured approach. Second, firms are not self-suffi-
cient in the digital age and need strong collabora-
tion partners. Therefore, managers might use the
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Journal of Business Chemistry 2017, 14 (3) 105 © Journal of Business Chemistry