Digital Maturity and Organizational Resilience
during Crisis
An Exploratory Single Case Study within B2B Sales Interactions during COVID-19
Mattias Blomkvist Anton Eling
Business and Economics, master's level 2021
Luleå University of Technology
Department of Social Sciences, Technology and Arts
Acknowledgements
This thesis marks the final milestone in our academic journey at Luleå University of Technology (LTU) and our journey towards graduation which started almost half a decade ago.
We are incredibly grateful towards all the guidance given to us during our time in Luleå but want to especially thank and show our gratitude to our supervisor Jeandri Robertson for the invaluable guidance and consultation every step throughout the process of writing this thesis.
Lastly, we want to thank our family and friends for their unwavering support during our time at the university.
Luleå, June 2021
Mattias Blomkvist Anton Eling
_______________ _______________
Abstract
Over the past decade, digitalization has played an increasingly important and prominent role in the competitiveness of businesses. The pace of digitalization is not slowing down and has only intensified rapidly over recent years. Because of this, businesses that invest a significant amount of resources toward digitalization could increase and strengthen their competitive advantage and develop their digital maturity, which can be described as the technological functions and visions available for a firm. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace of digitalization was intensified further, and many businesses were forced to adapt their business activities through digital channels to stay operational. Furthermore, a specific field affected by the governmental restrictions was B2B sales interactions, which has caused several problems for firms that do not have sufficient technological functions to adapt to digital channels, the digital capabilities can be described as sufficient. To counteract the pandemic effects, organizational resilience is an aspect that is activated to aid companies in parrying the effects of the sudden shock, in this case, caused by COVID-19 and can be described as the resources made available by management to respond and adapt to unexpected events. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate how sales interactions were impacted, by investigating the level of digital maturity and organizational resilience of one specific company, during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This was conducted through an exploratory single case study of a global biomaterials company where digital maturity was measured through a survey followed by an in-depth interview to assess the company’s organizational resilience.
The findings suggest a clear link between the digital maturity level of a firm and how well it can be utilized in organizational resilience efforts when re-shaping the business landscape.
Furthermore, the study highlights that digitalization is becoming a prominent factor in the way businesses and sales are conducted and even more in the times of crisis, thus, highlighting the importance of digital maturity. Based on the insights gained from the in-depth interview, a conceptual framework called digital activation of resilience within sales interactions was constructed. This framework highlights what was discovered in this single case to be the main influences on sales interactions and how digital maturity aids the activation of resilience.
Keywords: Digitalization, Digital Maturity, Organizational Resilience, Sales Interactions, business-to-business (B2B)
Sammanfattning
Under det senaste årtiondet har digitalisering fått en allt mer betydande roll inom företagande för att behålla konkurrensfördelar där takten av digital utveckling har accelererat frekvent.
Detta har lett till att företag har investerat signifikanta summor i digitala hjälpmedel för att förbättra sina konkurrensfördelar och öka sin digitala mognad, där den digitala mognaden beskrivs som de tekniska resurser och vision som är tillgängligt för företaget. Till följd av pandemin fick intensiteten av digitalisering en massiv ökning då många företag tvingats att ställa om sin verksamhet och kommunikation till digitala kanaler. Ett affärsområde som drabbats hårt var försäljningsaspekten mellan företag (B2B) som till följd av regeringens direktiv tvingats ställa om sitt sätt att interagera med sina kunder. Företag som inte hade en väl utvecklad digitaliserad verksamhet drabbades hårt av detta. För att kunna hantera denna externa chock mot sin verksamhet krävs organisatorisk motståndskraft, som kan beskrivas som de resurser som finns tillgängliga för att hantera oförutsedda kriser och händelser som består av åtgärder som kan parera effekterna av kriser som COVID-19. Denna fallstudie var en undersökande studie där, en global koncern inom produkter och biomassa skulle generera svaren som behövdes för att mäta digital mognad och organisatorisk motståndskraft. Den digitala mognaden av företaget togs fram med hjälp av en enkät och svaren angående deras organisatoriska motståndskraft genererades med hjälp av en personlig intervju. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka hur sälj interaktioner har förändrats baserat på grad av digital mognad och organisatorisk motståndskraft under pandemin. Resultatet av denna studie hänvisar till ett samband mellan nivån av digital mognad hos ett företag och hur väl denna mognad kan komma till nytta vid aktioner via organisatorisk motståndskraft när det kommer till utformandet av affärs interaktioner. Vidare så bidrar studien till att visa hur digitalisering är på väg att bli en vital faktor i genomförandet av affärer och sälj interaktioner i framtiden och därav framhäver vikten av att besitta god digital mognad. Baserat på insikten som uppkom från den djupgående intervjun så skapades en modell som lyfter fram de beståndsdelar av modellerna som påvisats ha en påverkan på sälj interaktioner och hur digital mognad stödjer den organisatoriska motståndskraften
Nyckelord: Digitalisering, Digital Mognad, Organisatorisk Motståndskraft, Sälj interaktioner, business-to-business (B2B)
Table of Content
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Problem Discussion 4
1.3 Purpose & Research Questions 5
1.4 Delimitation 6
2.0 Literature Review 7
2.1 Digitalization 7
2.1.1 Digital Maturity 9
2.2 Organizational Resilience 13
2.2.1 The Relational Activation of Resilience 14
3.0 Methodology 18
3.1 Research Purpose 17
3.2 Research Approach 18
3.3 Research Strategy 19
3.4 Data Collection 21
3.5 Data Analysis 22
3.5.1 Digital Maturity Survey 22
3.5.2 Organizational Resilience Interview 23
3.6 Sample Selection 24
3.7 Quality Standards 25
3.7.1 Validity 25
3.7.2 Reliability 27
3.7.3 Ethical Considerations 29
4.0 Empirical Data and Analysis 30
4.1 Company Analysis of Digital Maturity 30
4.1.1 Stora Enso’s Digital Maturity 30
4.1.2 Industry analysis of digital maturity 32
4.2 The Relational Activation of Resilience 33
4.2.1 Exogenous Shock 34
4.2.2 Ushering Liminality 34
4.2.3 Alteration of Relational Connections and New Social Networks 35
4.2.4 Network Utilization in Meaning & Sensemaking 37
4.2.5 Network Usage in Mindful Communications 38
5.0 Discussion 39
5.1 Research Question I: Digital Maturity 39
5.1.1 Quadrants of Digital Maturity & Crisis Management 42 5.1.2 Digital Maturity & its Impact on Sales Interactions 44
5.2 Research Question II: Organizational resilience 45
5.3 Conceptual Framework 49
6.0 Conclusion 52
6.1 Contribution to Theory 52
6.2 Contribution to Literature 53
6.3 Practical Implications 54
6.4 Limitations 54
6.5 Suggestions for Further Research 55
7.0 References 57
8.0 Appendix 62
Appendix A 62
Appendix B 63
List of Figures
Figure 1: The Impact of Digitalization 7
Figure 2: The Digital Maturity model 10
Figure 3: Digital Maturity by Industries 12
Figure 4: The Relational Activation of Resilience 15
Figure 5: Digital Maturity, focal firms’ position 31
Figure 6: Authors Construct of Maturity by industry 33
Figure 7: Digital Maturity, Quadrant Analysis 42
Figure 8: Digital Maturity Activation of Resilience within Sales Interactions 50
List of Tables
Table I: Research Strategies 19
Table II: Design Tests, Case Study Tactics 26
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1.0 Introduction
This chapter introduces the reader with a background of how both digital maturity and organizational resilience impacts sales interactions within B2B. Furthermore, this chapter aims to provide the reader with clarity through problem discussion and research questions.
Finally, the reader is also presented with a delimitation part which clarifies the exact boundaries of the research.
1.1 Background
Sales are an aspect that is commonly regarded as an interaction between two companies and is often associated with physical interactions. Historically salespeople have been conducting their sales interactions through various channels e.g., physical meetings (Cortez & Johnston, 2020).
However, due to the ever-changing climate of business and new innovations of technology, changes are slowly occurring. In the case of the new world situation as a result of COVID-19, digital transformation has been deemed urgently vital (Hartmann & Lussier 2020). Scholars have closely studied this phenomenon and highlighted the importance of technology within business. Digital transformation and technological change have increased, and the perception of new digital opportunities are becoming more and more complex (Rachinger et al., 2019).
Furthermore, it is not only the technological advancements of society that pressure companies.
External forces such as crises and disasters are ever-present in affecting the circumstances of business (Kantur & Iseri-Say 2015), hence, creating the interest in organizational resilience and digitalization for many companies.
As mentioned by Cortez and Johnston (2020), in today's business climate, the most common way of conducting business regularly is through physical interactions e.g., sales efforts which can be classified as sales interactions. Therefore, this thesis is defining authentic sales interactions as sales through physical, in-person, buyer-seller interactions. Alamäki and Kaski (2015) address the importance of authentic sales interactions, in the sense that sales interactions are value-creating for businesses and are best communicated through physical interactions.
However, as the settings of sales interactions change, the term digitalization is taking up an
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increasing amount of importance within both society and in the business world. With the regulatory changes in technology and personal communication, similar patterns of digital interactions influence how business between firms are conducted (Ilcus, 2018). Parviainen et al. (2017, p.64), describe digitalization as the changes generated using technology within a society or “the ability to turn existing products or services into digital variants”.
Rodriguez et al. (2020) argue that digitalization is an advantageous tool for sales employees within the business-to-business (B2B) sector. Digitalization can be used to collect valuable data about a customer or spread important information through the organization.
However, having strong digital abilities is not only a vital factor for a business to possess to stay successful and innovative. Organizational resilience is an important quality for a business to possess, which enables a business to respond to an ever-changing environment according to Fleron et al. (2021). Organizational resilience can be described as how well suited a company is, with its set of tools and skills, to adapt and overcome the sudden change in the business climate such as economic crises (Kantur & Iseri-Say, 2015). Furthermore, companies that have strong organizational resilience can absorb and withstand external shocks which could potentially harm the organization (De Carvalho et al., 2016).
Organizational resilience can be activated and strengthened by active leadership in an organization through relational connections (Teo et al., 2017). However, an exogenous shock like the COVID-19 pandemic forces leaders to take active decisions to parry the effects of the pandemic. Teo et al. (2017) state that organizational leaders would first and foremost have to highlight or identify the effects of the exogenous shock and then inform the employees of the changed business climate in order to take appropriate actions. According to Teo et al. (2017), there is one model which aims to activate strong organizational resilience during exogenous shocks like the pandemic. This model is called Relational Activation of Resilience (RAR) and works through leaders' capability to identify shocks that affect the organizational structure.
Hence, from this, the organizational leaders also need the ability to mediate this to pertinent staff, employees, or managers which then can initiate organizational adaptation and therefore activate organizational resilience.
The COVID-19 pandemic stresses the importance for organizations to activate adaptational measures to become more flexible, to parry the effects of the pandemic. This is further stressed by Teo et al. (2017) which previously mentioned organizational resilience and its strategies to
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proceed with business activities through different modus operandi. This is strengthened by Rai et al. (2021) which in their article about organizational resilience during COVID-19 argue that organizational resilience acts as a stabilizer for a company. But in order to activate organizational resilience and implement change through technological solutions a company has to achieve a certain level of digital maturity. Westerman et al. (2012) describe digital maturity as a combination of digital intensity and transformational management intensity. Digital intensity is described by Westerman et al. (2012) as the degree of investment into technology whereas management intensity is the investment into managerial components to make technological transformations possible. Furthermore, the level of digital maturity within an organization can be presented within the digital maturity model, which places a company or firm in four different quadrants which corresponds to the respective maturity levels and displays how well integrated with technology the said company is (Westerman et al., 2012).
The outbreak of COVID-19 has made apparent, as with previous disasters and pandemics, that these kinds of events have a drastic effect on the world economy and society. The nature of the virus has thus made both consumers and companies behave differently due to restricted movements and interactions to limit the further spread, adding strain to business operations as well as raising the question of how both social and business interactions will look like after the pandemic (Donthu & Gustafsson, 2020). Furthermore, Hartmann and Lussier (2020), add that a technological escalation within B2B interactions is likely to occur due to the COVID-19 pandemic to decrease virus spread. Hence, it is of great importance and urgency to investigate this gap in knowledge of how companies have adapted their sales interactions through digital transformation efforts during the pandemic because of the changed conditions due to remote digital ways of working for the sales employees as mentioned by Hartman and Lussier (2020).In addition, the challenges created by COVID-19 were immense for B2B sales, and thus understanding the issues surrounding the pandemic and how firms respond are incredibly important to learn from (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020).
As of today, customers are steering towards more digital improvements due to a more digitalized society (Mäki & Alamäki, 2014). Furthermore, this aspect is affecting how sales interactions are performed in a B2B setting, where the acquired knowledge from sales interactions could increase the value for both parties since the selling party receives insight from the customer who in turn may receive valuable organizational and market information (Alamäki & Kaski, 2015).
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1.2 Problem Discussion
Technology is in many ways a substantial part of most companies' day-to-day activities (Parviainen et al., 2017). Therefore, the core issue to investigate is how the current and constant growth of technology is taking an increasingly centralized role in how business between firms and how operations are conducted. This increases pressure on firms to be aware of the ever- changing digital environment and to find effective ways to utilize digital tools within their business transactions to stay competitive (Westerman et al., 2012). Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has pressured governments to initiate social distancing regulations which initially forced employees who work within the B2B industry to disrupt their everyday business activities (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). The normal activities that suffer are business meetings, which include sales pitches or conferences (Bick et al., 2020).
This creates a sequence of problematic effects for some companies. One part of the problem lies within the lack of digital maturity which is a crucial enabling factor within digitalization.
If a company is not digitally mature, they tend to be at a disadvantage when fast digital change is required as in the case of the pandemic (Westerman et al., 2012). The second part of the problem is stressed by Teo et al. (2017) who argue, to be able to adapt to sudden changes in the business environment, a company needs strong organizational resilience to be able to parry negative effects harming their daily business activities. This concludes that a company needs both factors in order to both have the technology and resilience power to adapt to negative external changes in the business environment. In addition, the concept of not being able to change business strategies is a lack of organizational resilience which essentially means how well an organization adapts to ever-changing conditions (Kantur & Iseri-Say, 2015). Digital maturity and organizational resilience are both vital tools for organizations to possess to survive in an increasingly digital developing society, as well as the effects of the pandemic and to move forward into the future.
The problem many companies face today is the fast adaptation to a digital business climate since technology is improving regularly, which forces companies to improve their digital measures (Parviainen et al., 2017). The transformation of digital measures, i.e., the improvement of digital maturity within a company is closely associated with digital technology in all aspects of human society (Parviainen et al., 2017).
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This transformation could deeply affect the sales interaction roles within the organization.
Traditionally key account managers and sales managers are relying on personal selling in order to succeed within their field (Jolson, 2013). While physical sales meetings are highly successful as mentioned by Jolson (2013), the possibility of selling through online meetings with a high success rate remains to be explored. Because of the pandemic, physical interactions are suffering since the pandemic has forced businesses to take immediate actions towards the challenges COVID-19 has bestowed upon the world (Mohapatra et al., 2020). In order to adapt, organizations have had to undergo technological changes to stay competitive and survive the pandemic (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020).
To undergo organizational technological change, one option might be to strive towards increasing digitalization within a company. Rodríguez et al. (2020) argue that digitalization has a very complex role within B2B sales processes. But when done correctly it could be a revolutionary tool in how B2B sales processes are being executed. Rodríguez et al. (2020) discuss that digitalization is a steadily growing part of organizations’ B2B exchange, however, it still has limited usage due to the effectiveness of analog methods.
1.3 Purpose & Research Questions
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of digital maturity and organizational resilience on the sales interactions of B2B firms, with regards to having to adapt to disruptive change during a time of crisis. To address the research problem of this study, two research questions are formulated:
● How does digital maturity impact the sales interactions of B2B firms during COVID- 19?
● How does the role of organizational resilience impact the sales interactions of a B2B firm during COVID-19, with due consideration of the firm’s level of digital maturity?
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1.4 Delimitation
This single case study will preliminarily focus on the two main constructs, digital maturity, and organizational resilience. Furthermore, the research is structured as an exploratory single case study and will investigate the company Stora Enso that operates within the industrial based area located in the Nordic regions. Due to the large corporate size of Stora Enso, the findings of the research could be of interest as a template for other similar larger firms. The case study itself will be conducted by combining a survey followed by an interview based on the survey results. The sole purpose of the survey was to map out where the company was located within the digital maturity framework guided by Westerman et al. (2014b) to aid the analysis.
Combining the survey with the interview will emphasize how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the B2B transactions and if a strong digital maturity and organizational resilience can help aid companies cope with the situation.This in turn will limit the study to the pandemic time frame and thus representing a certain area of investigation during a special time period.
Additionally the number of responses on the survey and interview also limited the amount of data collection with two survey respondents and one interview respondent. The concepts which will be emphasized are the RAR model´s different components for determining the company’s organizational resilience and then the digital maturity model´s four different categories. However, due to the chosen company and the nationality of the interviewees the formulation of both survey questions and interview questions were translated into Swedish.
This was to clarify and generate a thorough understanding of the subject and its relation to the questions.
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2.0 Literature Review
The literature review will describe the main components of this thesis and what has previously been written and explored in the areas of digitalization within B2B, digital maturity and organizational resilience.
2.1 Digitalization
Digitalization has been a major factor in the changing climate of both business environments and society, digitalization has changed how companies conduct their business. Furthermore, it is argued that neglecting digitalization could become highly disadvantageous in terms of losing advantage within highly competitive markets, it is stated that the opportunities brought forward by digitalization are immense including the new ways of working and role management (Parviainen et al., 2017). Furthermore, Parviainen et al. (2017) argue that digitalization plays a significant part in ending some businesses due to their value proposition becoming obsolete.
The impact of digitalization is thus substantial and is showcased in figure 1 and is built from three different viewpoints (Parviainen et al., 2017).
Figure 1: The Impact of Digitalization: Adopted Parviainen et al. (2017), p. 66
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Disruptive change is described by Parviainen et al. (2017) as to how digitalization overhauls the operating environment within a company and can render some portions of a firm's operations obsolete while creating a new and more effective way of solving the problem.
Furthermore, it is argued that the external opportunities could include improved service, offerings as well as response time when interacting with clients. Lastly, the internal efficiency could be improved which includes processes by removing the manual interactions, a better real- time view of how the operations are progressing as well as facilitating more streamlined and easier methods of working for employees. Lerch and Gotsch (2015), also weigh into digitalization and state that mastering digitalization creates a powerful tool for firms to be able to provide solutions for customers.
Adding to this Rodríguez et al. (2020, p.1) states that “Digitalization, such as internet technology in society with its associated applications, has been argued as changing the way business is being done, and has increasingly been regarded as a source of competitive advantage” and continues to state the importance of the internet in terms of customer communication. However, Rodriguez et al. (2020) highlight that creating a digitalized work environment within B2B also depends on the customers since some tend to prefer a physical interaction to conduct business. Rodriguez et al (2020) also add that the information transaction is important when closing deals and that preferable ways of interactions vary between a seller and buyer companies. Rodriguez et al. (2020) further stress the importance of communication and that there is more to B2B sales interactions than just selling and receiving goods or services.
One element which is hard to digitize is the interactions of body language which can be an important factor when conducting sales in order to create a trustworthy exchange. What is concluded by Rodriguez et al. (2020) is that even though the digitization of B2B sales processes is expanding, the personal interaction of physical meetings still contributes in such a way that it is difficult to replace it entirely with digital measures. Furthermore, the context and importance of deals matter to deem digitalization useful when conducting B2B sales (Rodriguez et al., 2020).
The fact that digital transformations play a prominent role in improving companies’ operations is commonly understood. Westerman et al. (2014a), list up to nine different areas where digitalization can play a significant role: customer understanding, top-line growth, customer touchpoints, process digitization, worker enablement, performance management, digitally modified businesses, new digital business, and digital globalization.
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Furthermore, the same article states that digitalization can benefit companies in all industries but stresses the importance of two key factors, strong leadership, and vision, to be able to successfully make use of digital tools. Combining this set of variables enables companies to have a strong digital maturity and with this brings the ability to outperform firms with less maturity (Westerman et al., 2014a). In addition to this, within the field of B2B, many firms are growing their digital resources but are lacking in sales aspect and according to Catlin et al.
(2016), who argues, this is where digital implementations are needed the most in order to support growth.
2.1.1 Digital Maturity
Digital maturity is described by Chanias and Hess (2016) as a description of how much a firm has transformed in terms of digitalization and how much of its operations has been digitized.
Regarding how well and how effectively a company responds to changes within technology can be the difference between survival and failure. In the sense that, companies that possess high levels of digital maturity tend to utilize effective management teams with efficient technological strategies which outperform their rival competitors (Fitzgerald et al., 2014).
Embracing digitalization is thus a substantial tool in boosting business performance overall (Fitzgerald et al., 2014). This is strengthened by Kane et al. (2017) which describes digital maturity as not only adapting to technology but also about adapting digital measures to become competitive and to continuously improve the technical aspects of the firm. To improve the technological aspects of the firm it is of pivotal importance to assess the current state of digital maturity. This is discussed by Von Solms et al. (2021) which argues that when the current state of digital deployment is defined, a prognostic future maturity level can be set as a new target for implementation.
The authors Westerman et al. (2012) generated a framework to measure a company's availability and progress within digitalization. The framework is called Digital Maturity and measures the progression within technical solutions and overall capability to perform digital changes within a company as seen below in figure 2. The framework is built upon two different dimensions, the first dimension is called digital intensity which describes to which degree and length an organization is invested within technology-based initiatives, which can fundamentally change how a company operates. The operations included are in the structure of customer engagements, internal operations, and business models. The second dimension is
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called transformation management intensity, which measures the leadership capabilities that are necessary to push for digital transformation within the company (Westerman et al., 2012).
The transformation intensity is a part of a grander vision, which has the aim to shape a new future for the organization in the sense of changing the company structure especially through governance and IT-business relationships. Which steers toward an improved technology-based change for the entire organization. These two dimensions can be divided into four types of quadrants within digital maturity, where the quadrants are composed in the model showcased in figure 2 below (Westerman et al., 2012). In addition to this, Westerman et al. (2012) also highlight that the profitability tends to increase for firms placing higher in terms of transformation management which means the conservative and digerati spectrum. These firms tend to utilize governance together with the corporate vision to focus actions into directions that aid profits as well as identifying new opportunities. According to Westerman et al. (2014a) to digitally transform business structures, strong leadership is a required capability to initiate change. However, transformational change also requires a shared vision within the company to decide what business activities that are pertinent to transform.
DIGITAL MATURITY MODEL
Figure 2: The Digital Maturity model: Adopted from Westerman et al. (2012), p.1
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Fashionistas:Companies that are located within this spectrum have generated or experimented with many different advanced digital applications where some of the solutions do create value, but many did not. However, these solutions look advanced and professional, but they are not implemented in such a way to create synergy between services. Companies within this quadrant are motivated to push for digital transformation but these companies lack the knowledge within digital transformation strategy. The implication of the knowledge gap implies that these companies lack enterprise-level governance which means that they find it hard to maximize business benefits (Westerman et al., 2012). Fitzgerald et al. (2014) argue that companies within the fashionista spectrum are aggressively pursuing new digital initiatives. However, despite their intensity, the fashionistas do not have an effective vision across their departments for dealing with digitalization.
Beginners: Companies regarded as beginners within the two dimensions generally lack advanced technology and leadership. This spectrum represents companies that are inexperienced within both transformation management and digital intensity. This means that these companies might be unaware of profitable opportunities or potentially launching ineffective investments through ineffective transformation management (Westerman et al., 2012). Beginners are not new to technology but rather tend to be slow at adapting and not as open towards implementation of advanced digital measures and thus seldom reap the benefit of digital advancement (Fitzgerald et al., 2014).
Digirati: Organizations within this category truly understand how to create value within digital transformation. By successfully combining both transformation management and digital intensity they generate a transformative vision for the company which involves governance, engagements, and sufficient investments in new opportunities. By succeeding within this space, the companies within the digirati category develop a certain culture that can pursue further changes which can be implemented. Through investment and careful coordination within the digital initiatives, these companies continuously advance their digital competitive advantage (Westerman et al., 2012). Fitzgerald et al. (2014) also stipulate that these types of companies share a common and strong vision for new digital advancements, where the companies within the digirati spectrum manage new technologies effectively.
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Conservatives: Companies within this category tend to be more prudent than innovative. They understand the importance of a unifying vision as well as corporate culture and governance.
These qualities ensure that most investments are managed and controlled well. However, these companies tend to express great skepticism towards digital transformation and trends which could potentially be backlashing to what they want to achieve. Although these companies aim to undergo careful approaches which may cause them to miss invaluable opportunities which their competitors can counteract (Westerman et al., 2012). This is also discussed and strengthened by Fitzgerald et al. (2014) who argue that conservatives often choose to move slowly and adopt a careful approach supported by management which makes use of good structure to be able to implement technological measures.
Furthermore, Westerman et al. (2012) concluded that some industries are more digitally mature than others, to prove this the authors created a framework where they divided each industry into their specific category within the digital maturity spectrum to see which industry belongs to what category as seen below in figure 3.
Figure 3: Digital Maturity by Industries: Created by the Authors, Adopted from Westerman et al. (2012)
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Westerman et al. (2012) concluded that companies that were located in the digirati spectrum were significantly more profitable than other competitors and that no organization is completely immune to digital transformations. However digital maturity takes time to develop, and it is suggested that executives and managers in every industry should take active decisions to improve their digital maturity through analyzing opportunities and threats concerning digital transformation and transformation management (Westerman et al., 2012).
2.2 Organizational Resilience
The modern business environment is defined by its ever-changing climate, different challenges arise when new crises occur (Kantur & Iseri-Say, 2015). Because of this, organizational resilience has achieved an important centralized role for companies to remain successful (Kantur & Iseri-Say, 2015). This is also strengthened by Vogus and Sutcliffe (2007) which stipulates that organizational resilience is a positive adjustment towards challenging conditions such as shocks or crises and other disruptions that affect the routines within a business.
Kantur and Iseri-say (2015), stresses the importance of a system that builds organizational resilience which consists of three main dimensions. These three dimensions are robustness, agility, and integrity. Where robustness includes the measuring of the organization's total capacity to withstand and recover from unfavorable conditions. Agility measures the organization's capacity to act rapidly. Integrity measures the unity between the staff within the company during disadvantageous moments within the company life cycle (Kantur & Iseri-Say., 2015). Incorporating these three factors into routine procedures can stabilize the company structure during external shocks (Kantur & Iseri-Say., 2015). Furthermore, De Carvalho et al.
(2016) argue that the implementation of sufficient skills and knowledge builds a stable foundation that can withstand possible shocks that could destabilize the organization. In addition, Powley (2009) stipulates that when relational structures are suspended or interrupted, new types of interactions are made through organizational resilience.
Adding to this Lee et al. (2013) underline that there is a link between resilience and how competitive a company can become, with the main components consisting of strong leadership and environmental awareness to be able to quickly take on change. Furthermore, the measurement of resilience in a company can, according to Lee et al. (2013), contribute to showcasing several needs including resilience progress, need for leadership, the linkage
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between organizational resilience with how competitive the firm is, and lastly create a case for why investments into resilience efforts could benefit the organizations’ operations.
2.2.1 The Relational Activation of Resilience
In order to measure and track organizational resilience within an organization Teo et al. (2017) created the RAR-model as seen below in figure 5. The model asks if leaders can utilize relational networks within companies or organizations to activate organizational resilience during crises. The RAR-model emphasizes that organizations and companies are composed of complex communication systems between individuals within the organization. These communication systems are the source of building organizational structure, in the sense of shared vision and meaning, while also generating cognitive, social, and emotional reserves which all contribute to organizational resilience within crisis scenarios (Teo et al.,2017). There were other models and theories investigated in regards applying an organizational resilience model to this research. One model that was investigated was from Pasteur (2011), the model investigated several core areas that tried to move people permanently out of poverty, strengthening livelihoods, disasters and building adaptive capacity and addressing different areas of the governance environment and how this creates resilience. This was not applicable to this particular research since it did not take the organizational aspect into consideration.
However, the model was of interest due to its connection to crisis management but inevitably fell short in regards to organizations and thus leading to the choice of the RAR- model by Teo et al. (2017).
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Figure 4: The Relational Activation of Resilience: Adopted from Teo et al. (2017), p.140
The RAR model describes the ways leaders can activate organizational resilience during an organizational crisis by illuminating relational connections. It starts with an exogenous shock, which leaders of the organization identify and highlight to the rest of the staff. From then and forward, leaders start to implement new ways or adopt innovative solutions to conduct profitable business during the organizational crisis (modus operandi). Furthermore, the model consists of different stages: (A) Ushering liminality, (B) Liminal period, (C) Promote formation of relational connections, (D) Utilize networks in collective meaning-making and sensemaking, (E) Using networks to communicate mindfully (Teo et al., 2017).
The first stage of the model works as the initial recognition phase of the exogenous crisis, which indicates that some standard procedures or other significant parts of how the organization conducts its business is changed. This poses challenges for the leaders within the organization where they must make rapid sense of the escalating events. Hence, the leaders must coordinate decision-making and form a defensive response to the crisis while explaining
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to the staff that the organization is experiencing an external threat. The fundamental tasks in a leader’s perspective are to lead the organization in a profitable way which also indicates that leaders need to be able to recognize early signs of a crisis, call to action when certain thresholds have been crossed while also guiding the organization into the next step within their life cycle.
When the liminal period is active, the organizational leaders have to effectively utilize connections through relations in order to perform relevant leadership tasks where the goal is to promote and streamline organizational resilience (Teo et al., 2017).
Furthermore, organizational leaders have a high level of influence which motivates them to mold new relational connections through shared interest and mutual trust. This is to encourage the adaptation of an organizational recovery.
Leaders effectively utilize relational networks to gather various perspectives for collective meaning-making and sense-making. Within organizations, sensemaking is of importance due to the impacts it has on employees involved in operations. Since the concept revolves around how employees interpret and build an understanding of a situation through their interactions with the individuals around them and this, in turn, leads to a coordinated action to deal with the said situation. In order to assist employees to understand the effects of the crisis on the company, the implementation of effective meaning-making is required as a support effort to aid in decision making. Furthermore, performing effective sense-making means encouraging and assisting employees to reduce unclear variables of the current situation, which aims to facilitate a fast response in coordination with the decision-making. Lastly, the importance of networks is stressed within the RAR-model due to the impact they have on sensemaking but also the importance as a resource for staff when dealing with crises. By the usage of mindful communication corporate leaders can empower employees and in turn use it as an important factor in strengthening resilience (Teo et al., 2017).
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3.0 Methodology
This chapter aims to clarify what strategy to pursue when conducting the research. As well as a justification of which underlying theories to be taken in consideration while also presenting various methods of data collection and sample selections.
3.1 Research Purpose
The research purpose aims to present, establish, and form the most important statement of the study, in the sense of what the study aims to answer and why it is conducted (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018). There are several approaches to conducting research and forming its purpose.
The purpose could either be through an explanatory, descriptive, or exploratory method. The exploratory study is conceptualized as finding knowledge about a certain area to seek new insights, where the essential purpose of an exploratory study tries to shed new light on certain phenomena within the chosen field of research (Saunders et al., 2012).
The descriptive method relies on observational data which explains certain patterns within the field of research (David & Sutton, 2016). The explanatory method conceptualizes that an explanation needs to be conducted in order to investigate the subject's causality within a certain situation while also performing descriptive observations (David & Sutton, 2016). The purpose of this thesis was to conduct exploratory research in the form of a single case study that aimed to investigate the impact of digital maturity and the role of organizational resilience in B2B sales interactions during times of crisis, particularly during COVID-19. The reason behind this is the proven usefulness of digitalization measures within a business context. However, there is an unexplored area within the B2B environment which includes aspects such as meetings and conferences to sales. Because of the pandemic, these activities have in many cases been forced to be implemented online. Therefore, it was of great interest that this area was investigated further to understand if organizations were able to adapt their sales interactions through organizational resilience and digital maturity. The findings of this study could therefore be the foundation of further research into digital implementation within the B2B sales environment.
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3.2 Research Approach
The research approach is meant to work as a guideline that emphasizes certain steps and procedures within the study. It starts through broad assumptions which later narrow down into detailed methods of data collection, analysis, and interpretations (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).
Research studies can be either qualitative, quantitative, or a combination of both, however, there are different methods of conducting the research. For researching subjects that require a large amount of data and broad answers, quantitative methods are preferable when conducting research with a high level of generalization. This is due to the use of variable measurement and objective views. Qualitative methods have more of a subjective focus with regards to certain research questions with priority on creating a profound understanding of a certain area through a selected few interviewees (David & Sutton, 2016). The objective of this study was to create knowledge within B2B sales interactions with regards to digitalization. As such, interviews and surveys with an objective interpretation were required thus making a mixed-method study according to David and Sutton (2016) suitable.
Regarding the inductive or deductive nature of this study, careful consideration was made to decide on the nature of the data collection methods. David and Sutton (2016) describe inductive studies as having more open questions and centralize around analyzing empirical data to explain certain situations whereas deductive studies require a higher degree of structure in which the information is gathered and is based on previous theory. If the research cannot be categorized into an inductive or deductive approach, a combination can be made which is referred to as abduction and can be used to both combine previous research of a phenomenon and then strengthen it with the usage of empirical studies (Saunders et al., 2016). Regarding the chosen method of research for this thesis, the latter, abduction was per the nature of the issue of digitalization of B2B interactions the appropriate route to pursue. The reasoning behind this was that it was not possible to conclude solely from previous information and the study could not have been constructed without the existing research thus making a combined effort the most favorable for the study.
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3.3 Research Strategy
When developing a research strategy, the authors had to thoroughly coordinate a strategy to successfully progress within the research. Hence, this strategy was aimed to provide clarification of how the authors answered the posed research questions and how they planned to achieve the milestones and objectives within the research. However, there are a few aspects that the authors had to take into consideration when forming the research strategy. These aspects were the available time frame, current research that had been conducted within the field, available participants, and available resources at the time (Saunders et al., 2016).
According to Saunders et al. (2016), there are a few research strategies to consider, where some of these are more suitable than others depending on the scope of the thesis. Thus, conducting a case study consisting of a quantitative survey and a qualitative in-depth interview were chosen both backed by previous research.
The purpose of archival research is predominately for the usage of information that was previously obtained. This type of research is used to create a historical perspective of a phenomenon whereas case studies' main function is to create a profound and in-depth apprehension of a subject. Hence, provides knowledge for understanding a certain situation and is described by Gerring (2004, p.341) as “an intensive study of a single unit for the purpose of understanding a larger class of (similar) units”.
Table 1: Research Strategies
Method Form of
Research question
Requires Control of Behavioral Events?
Focus on Contemporary Events
Experiment How, Why? Yes Yes
Survey Who, what, where, how
many, how much? No Yes
Archival Analysis Who, what, where, how many, how much?
No Yes/No
Historical How, why? No No
Case Study How, why? No Yes
Table 1: Retrieved from Yin (2009), p. 5
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The table above illustrates different types of research strategies and how they should be conducted when writing a thesis (Yin 2009). The table's left-hand side shows five different research strategies that can be applied to the thesis. These are Experiment, Survey, Archival Analysis, Historical, and Case Study. The top part of the table shows three different questions that have to be acknowledged in order to pick the right strategy for the right circumstance or method (Yin, 2009). The first questions ask the author what form of research question it is, for instance: How, why, and when? The second question asks if the authors need to control behavioral events: Yes/No and the third question asks if the research is focusing on contemporary events: Yes/No. However, Yin (2009) argues that even though the strategies are easily identifiable within the model they may not be as easily identifiable within certain research.
The problem lies within similarities between different research subjects where the boundary is hard to identify which could lead to further negative implications, in the sense of choosing the wrong strategy. However, the thesis posed these two research questions: “How does digital maturity impact the sales interactions of B2B firms during COVID-19 and How does the role of organizational resilience impact the sales interactions of a B2B firm during COVID-19, with due consideration of the firm’s level of digital maturity?” Both questions ask “how”
organizational resilience and digital maturity has impacted the sales interactions within B2B firms during COVID-19. At the time of writing COVID-19 is highly active which indicates that it is not a strategy linked to historic events that are supposed to be pursued which concludes that the study is going to be a single case study.
The digital maturity scale was therefore measured by a survey that clarified the criteria for each one of the four sections by determining the scope of digital intensity present within the firm.
The second area of investigation, transformation management intensity, will focus on the managerial aspect and what solutions are made available by the company leadership. The digital structure of the existing B2B environment was the focus of the question which will highlight what is taking place at the current time of writing. These questions were followed by the digital transformational questions which aimed to answer the possible future implementation and possibilities for the firm. The gathered information provides a foundation for answering the question of how digitally mature the company was with regards to its current usage of technological solutions. The information also provided plans for the future and if their positioning corresponded with what Westerman et al. (2012) concluded with regards to the firm's area of business.
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The decided strategy to measure organizational resilience was to gather and implement the measurements of the RAR model and link them to the research areas. The purpose was to draw significant similarities between the case study and the model to form the conclusion. However, the measurements of the RAR model were gathered through an interview conducted through an online platform. The interview was conducted with an employee with a high position within the company hierarchy that had first-hand experience within sales interactions. Hence, in accordance with this, the interviewee generated insight into how the daily business operations were being conducted and how the company adapted to the COVID-19 pandemics restrictions on sales interactions. This model consists of certain steps that answer how efficient the adaptation was and if it built organizational resilience.
3.4 Data Collection
When collecting data for qualitative research studies, open-ended surveys and interviews are the method of choice where the main focus is mentioned by David and Sutton (2016) to be the gathering of words and substantial information which cannot be described by numbers used in a qualitative study. Firstly, a survey was conducted in order to create an understanding of the company's level of digital maturity. The survey was completed by two individuals occupying high-ranking positions within the sales division of Stora Enso which was then followed by an in-depth interview with the Vice President of the fluff pulp segment to investigate organizational resilience. By using a qualitative interview combined with a survey, it was easier to create an understanding of how the interviewee felt about the subject and his expressions could be interpreted proficiently. The structure of how to conduct an interview can be divided into two main categories, structured and unstructured. Structured interviews have a clear format, and the questions are standardized and used in order whereas unstructured interviews are more free-flowing and can lead to differing answers (Saunders et al., 2016). To be able to retrieve the most relevant information, the usage of both structures into a semi-structured interview with a prior standardized survey was chosen where some survey questions were made to act as a bridge between digital maturity and organizational resilience.
The survey aimed to answer the level of digital maturity within the company, while most of the survey contained questions relating to digitalization, some open-ended questions were related to organizational resilience. The reason was to include some questions about organizational
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resilience to create a steady foundation for the interview and to merge the two subjects. This merge aimed to form a pathway that created both pertinence and relevance between the two subjects while also clarifying the area of research for the interviewees. The interview questions were based on the RAR-model to collect as much valuable data as possible of the subject and to create a high-quality standard within the research. Furthermore, the survey questions were related to the digital maturity of the focal firm and in turn based on the digital maturity model with its already existing questions from Westerman et al. (2014b). The chosen interview subject was contacted in advance and briefly informed about the context of the research and how the interview and survey were initiated to create a comfortable environment as a suggested strategy by David and Sutton (2016). The survey and the interview were both pre-tested with individuals with corporate experience to gain clarity for the measurement items or interview schedule in advance before they were ushered to mitigate errors. When conducting the interview, a mapped-out interview guide was followed, however, there were also complimentary questions asked in order to remove any unclear circumstances.
3.5 Data Analysis
Data was gathered from both an online interview and survey which the case subjects had to partake in. The structure of the data gathering was derived from existing theoretical models regarding digital maturity and organizational resilience.
Concerning the data collected, according to Yin (2009), different techniques can be applied when analyzing the findings of a case study. These techniques are pattern matching, explanation building, time-series, logic models, and cross-case synthesis. However, Yin (2009) argues that the usage of pattern matching logic can create a stronger internal validity if the empirical patterns match, which in this case study was a useful technique. Concerning this thesis, the concepts and theories investigated were implemented into two different models, the RAR-model, and the digital maturity model. These models were iteratively referred to and used in parallel when assessing the empirical data.
3.5.1 Digital Maturity Survey
The quantitative part of the data collection, the survey, was meant to answer the level of digital maturity within Stora Enso. The survey had a Likert-type scale, where Croasmun and Ostrom (2011) stipulate that rating scales such as the Likert-type scale are commonly used in social
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sciences. Furthermore, in order to be classified as a Likert-type scale, the statements a respondent has to answer need to be formed as Strongly Agree (SA), Undecided (U), and Strongly Disagree (SD) (Croasmun and Ostrom, 2011). In this survey the statements were scaled as 1 equal (Strongly disagree), 4 equal (Neutral) and 7 equals (Strongly agree), these statements ultimately answered the digital maturity of Stora Enso. However, the survey also included some open-ended questions regarding organizational resilience, whose purpose was to ease the transition between digital maturity and organizational resilience which also worked as a lead on questions for further evaluation within the interview. The survey was sent out to the test subjects connected to sales within the focal firm. The data were collected and analyzed with regards to the digital maturity model from Westerman et al. (2012) which was based on questions from Westerman et al. (2014b), where the total scales were added together and calculated through an arithmetic mean which located the focal firm in one of the four quadrants within the digital maturity framework.
3.5.2 Organizational Resilience Interview
The qualitative part of the data collection, the in-depth interview regarding organizational resilience, was firstly recorded and then transcribed into text. Findings from the interview were then applied to the RAR-model by Teo et al. (2017) which enabled an analysis of where Stora Enso’s Organizational resilience originated from within the model. The interview was closely analyzed since Saunders et al. (2012) stress that it is not only what is said in the interview that matters, but also the tone of the interviewee that has an important meaning in the given message. However, David and Sutton (2016) emphasize the hardship of analyzing qualitative data since this type of research involves a lot of downsizing within text formatting and organizational information. The interview thus generated complicated statements which demanded an objective analysis of the organizational resilience of Stora Enso. These statements were connected to the RAR model which led to the findings of the organizational resilience measures within Stora Enso. Adding to this, David and Sutton (2016) suggest that a five-step method needs to be applied to analyze qualitative data. Firstly, each category of interest is given a certain name, the data is then divided into relevant categories and as a third step, the data will be analyzed in order to identify patterns. This is followed by the fourth step which is to compare the results with relevant theory to explain the findings and lastly conclusions of the findings are stated.
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3.6 Sample Selection
Saunders and Thornhill (2012), suggest that when the population choice is too large to measure and when time is limited the sample selection technique is a great alternative.
In regard to this thesis, the chosen sample was sales executives within the chosen organization since these individuals are on the front line of B2B sales interactions and have extensive insight into how operations are run in the particular company. When conducting a study, a sample population is chosen to acquire the desired information from a certain area of interest. There are different types of sampling with regard to what is desired. For this thesis, it was vital to conduct an interview with an employee that had first-hand contact with customers through sales interactions in a B2B setting. Thus, making the method selective or purposive sampling appropriate. Selective sampling according to David and Sutton (2016) is when a specific group of people are chosen for sampling due to their set of skills and knowledge. However, sampling techniques in a purposive setting promotes researchers to select certain individuals that are matching the research questions (Saunders & Thornhill, 2012). The application of this case study will be done on the global company Stora Enso which is a leader of solutions of biomaterials, wood, and paper as well as packaging with a major focus on sustainability (Stora Enso, 2021) through selective sampling.
Stora Enso is originally from Finland but has at this moment in time ongoing sales efforts in over 50 countries and employs over 23 000 people that generates over 8.5 billion euros in sales (Stora Enso, 2021). The reason why Stora Enso was chosen for this study is since they are a big player in the industrial market and due to their large geographical business reach, they are suitable to use as a template for a survey on digitization efforts and influences during a crisis.
Data was primarily gathered from employees with direct contact with sales interactions within a B2B environment at Stora Enso. The interview was conducted with the Vice President, head of the fluff pulp segment, making this person highly qualified as an interview subject.
Furthermore, the survey and interviews were supplied to the Vice President and sales staff in advance, in order to create a foundation of information on which the interview was based upon to create a holistic view of the situation. This is done according to Creswell and Creswell (2018), in order to develop a complex overview of the situation and in the process making use of several perspectives to be able to build an understanding of how a problem expresses itself in the real world.
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The Interview findings of this study were generated from Mr. Stefan Klang, the Vice President of the fluff pulp segment who has first-hand contact with sales interactions. Mr. Klang was selected as the ideal candidate for two reasons. Firstly, his position within the firm and his long career within B2B sales interactions. Secondly, due to his involvement and experience in the transitions of working online during the pandemic and his insights into how the implementations affected him and his colleagues. Regarding the sample for the survey, the focus was centered on sales employees and thus making use of Mr. Klang as well as one of the heads of sales in the largest geographical market of the focal firm which remained anonymous.
3.7 Quality Standards
According to Saunders et al. (2016), to ensure that the research reaches the highest quality standard possible, it is of pivotal importance that the degree of validity and reliability are considered in regards to the data collection. In order to generate a result that provides both valid and reliable data, these two aspects need to be of the highest standard. However, the author stipulates that this is not always possible (Saunders et al., 2016). In addition, the data collection was conducted through both quantitative and qualitative means, in the sense of interviews and surveys. However, the interviews and the surveys were conducted through the Swedish language which means that the language barrier could affect the quality standard due to translation.
3.7.1 Validity
An important part of the research is to reach a high level of validity. Validity is an aspect that concerns the findings and conclusions of the research, meaning that both aspects answer what is meant to be answered (Saunders et al., 2012).
Therefore, high validity is an important measurement tool in terms of reaching high standards within the field of research to get accurate results (Saunders et al., 2012). Furthermore, there are tests that measure the level of validity, these tests are mainly conducted within the data analysis where they alone measure construct, internal and external validity (Yin, 2009).
26 Table 2: Design Tests, Case Study Tactics
Tests Case Study Tactics Phase of tactic
implementation Construct Validity Use multiple sources of evidence
Establish chain of evidence Have a Key informants review draft case
Data collection Data collection Composition
Internal Validity Pattern matching Explanation building Address rival explanations Use logic models
Data analysis Data analysis Data analysis Data analysis External Validity Use theory in single-case studies
Use replication logic in multiple- case studies
Research design Research design
Table 2: Retrieved from Yin (2009) p. 41
The top side of the table shows tactics, tests, and which phase of the research the tactics are implemented. The bottom shows which sort of validity is applied, which case study tactic is concerned, and the area of implementation. In addition, all aspects of choosing the right validity test were taken into consideration when researching in order to achieve a high quality within the study. These aspects were in the sense of assessing all the validity tests to ensure that the right one was picked and implemented correctly. For instance, if construct validity was implemented, the tactics of how to test this type of validity and how to strengthen it was assessed before choosing the design test. Assessing the strategies of using multiple sources of evidence, having key informants review the draft case.
Yin (2009) stipulated this framework to strengthen the validity within the field of research.
Therefore, it is of great importance that these case study tactics are being observed and correctly applied to the thesis to strengthen the grand validity of the research.
The first type of test that will be investigated to strengthen the overall validity is construct validity. Construct validity investigates to what certain extent the measurement measures what was initially intended (Saunders et al., 2012). According to Yin (2009) and his tests, construct validity demands multiple sources of evidence, where the evidence had to be linked and formed into a chain that builds valid reasoning. In addition, this section also demands that key informants review the evidence and the draft of the case study in order to build validity within
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construct terms (Yin, 2009). Internal validity is an aspect that is primarily concerned with explanatory or causal studies where the test measures the correlation between several variables to identify causality. Exploratory studies exploit other aspects which makes internal validity strategies inapplicable for this study. (Yin, 2009)
According to Yin (2009), external validity is a test that is meant to establish knowledge about generalizing problems in the findings of the study, where the proposed tactics are to use pertinent theory in single-case studies and replication logic in several case studies. This research is a single case study, which means that only one company was investigated.
According to Saunders et al. (2012) the purpose of single case studies is not to produce theory that is generalizable, the initial task is to investigate and highlight what is going on in that particular research area, which was also the purpose of this case study. In addition, a single- case study significantly decreases the generalization since the findings made for this specific company cannot be generalized to other companies making external validity a fitting choice for this study (Yin, 2009). Furthermore, this research investigates a situation during the pandemic which provided findings that could be used to further studies within similar fields of research.
In order to generate a thorough and valid foundation, previous theories within digital maturity and organizational resilience have been investigated prior to the forthcoming survey creation and the following interview where selective sampling was utilized for insight into sales interactions specifically. The results from the survey were generated through two participants which had two of the highest positions in sales within the company to map out digital maturity.
The interview was conducted with an individual that possessed the position of Vice President of the fluff pulp segment, this was done to understand the reasoning behind the decision- making within the changes of business activities to resist the pandemic effects. This made it possible to clarify the level of organizational resilience within the company. The answers on the surveys made it clear to locate the exact position the company had on the digital maturity scale to guide our discussion and result.
3.7.2 Reliability
Reliability with regards to studies can be described as how well the method of a study can be conducted several times by other researchers but still yield similar results (Saunders et al.,
