Dissertation Defense – Irmak MUTLU (PHDBA)

PhD THESIS DEFENSEDIGITAL MATURITY MEASUREMENT BASED ON THE STAGES OF DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATIONA

Study in the Automotive Sales and Aftersales Sector 

Irmak Mutlu, Ph.D. in Business Administration

Date: Thursday, May 18, 2023

Time: 09:30

Location:  Room 301, Business Administration Building,                   

Özyeğin University, Çekmeköy, İstanbul 

PhD Thesis Committee:

Assistant Professor Dr. Erik den Hartigh, Advisor, Özyeğin University

Associate Professor Dr. Çağlar Üçler, Özyeğin University

Assistant Professor Ahmet Murat Fiş, Özyeğin University

Professor Dr. Güneş Zeytinoğlu, Anadolu University

Associate Professor Dr. Deniz Tunçalp, Istanbul Technical University 

Abstract:

Digital transformation is the change of socio-economic structures such as business models, supply chains, platforms, or ecosystems as a consequence of the use of digital technology. Consistent with the previous research on understanding digital transformation, the transformational change of organizations, business models, platforms or ecosystems are triggered by digital technology exposure. Therefore, the impact of digital technologies on the digital transformation of companies and internal organizational aspects plays a critical role in literature as well as industrial practice. This transformational change triggered by the technologies raised the question about the digital maturity measurement or readiness assessment. The digital maturity model proposed in this study brings a new approach to both academics and practitioners in digital transformation literature regarding the digital measurement of the companies. This research mainly aims to answer, “How can the digital maturity level of an organization be measured?”. Research of the digital maturity measurement of organizations structured according to the following four parts: (1) Stages of Digital Business Transformation, (2) Organizational Aspects of Digital Maturity, (3) Digital Maturity Index Development, and (4) Digital Maturity Index Testing. The findings for the four parts are (1) Stages of digital business transformation, (2) Organizational aspects of digital maturity, (3) Digital Maturity Index as an instrument, (4) Digital Maturity Index implementation findings.

The first part focuses on defining and differentiating among core concepts of digital business transformation, i.e., digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation and stages’ arrangement. 5 stages are derived from expert interviews and literature reviews as the progressive stages of digital business transformation: (i) digital passive, (ii) digitization, (iii) digitalization, (iv) digital transition, and (v) digital transformation. The second part focuses on identification of 6 internal organizational aspects (Culture, Data and Analytics, People, Structure, and Organization, Processes and Systems, Strategy, and Technology) which should be considered when measuring the digital transformation of the companies. The third part focuses on how to measure the digital maturity stage of an organization. This part focuses on the Digital Maturity Index (DMI) design and development process covering the data collection and measure purification. The fourth part focuses on validity and reliability assessment of the developed digital maturity model and its business practice empirical implementation after the development of the DMI as an instrument. At the end of this part, DMI as a measurement instrument developed as a norm. This research contributes to literature by delivering a digital maturity measurement model which merges the academic and practitioner contributions and brings a new insight into organization’s digital maturity measurement literature.  The developed model was tested at an automotive company, but it was developed considering cross-industry implementation.

Bio:

Irmak Mutlu received her Bachelor of Science (BSc.) degree in Industrial Engineering (2010) from Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. She completed her dual Master of Science (MSc.) degree in International Management (MIM) at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey in 2012 and Global Alliance in Management Education - Community of European Management Schools (CEMS) in 2013. During her university years, she studied abroad in Boston MA, USA, Vancouver, BC, Canada, and London, ON, Canada: Harvard University, University of British Columbia, and Richard Ivey School of Business, respectively. Following her master’s degree studies, she started working in Germany in 2012. After working for Volkswagen Group companies (MAN Financial Services GmbH / Munich and Volkswagen Financial Services AG / Braunschweig) in Germany for seven years, she returned to Turkey and joined Doğuş Otomotiv, VW Group distributor in Turkey, and has been working as Digital Transformation and New Business Development Manager since 2018. At the same time, she continues her Ph.D. studies in the field of management, with a specialization in Digital Transformation under the supervision of Assistant Professor Erik den Hartigh, Faculty of Business Administration, Özyeğin University. Particularly, she is interested in digital transformation, digital technologies, and digital maturity measurement