Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (4): 21-34.

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A research on digital transformation: Its evolution and future prospects

Yan Zichun1, Li Xin2, Wang Weinan3,4   

  1. 1. School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China;  2. College of Economics and Management, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China;  3. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;  4. Research Center for Technological Innovation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2020-12-21 Revised:2021-02-23 Online:2021-04-20 Published:2021-04-19

Abstract: The related issues of digital transformation have gradually been integrated into the innovation, entrepreneurship, and many other research areas, and become one of the important research directions of the current. In view of the lack of systematic and exploratory retrospective research in this field, this paper systematically combs the economic and management literature in the field of digital transformation, and focuses process of the development of digital transformation research and the evolution of application scenarios. Focusing on the impact of digital technology on the overall development of different industries, this paper explores the evolution process of digital transformation research. The research combines the specific research content of important documents and the degree of integration of digital technology and social development, and analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation research from three stages by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. There are three innovations in this paper:First, around the impact of digital transformation on social development, this paper comprehensively combs the economic and management literature. The systematic analysis is carried out by combining quantitative and qualitative methods, which complements the existing research gaps; Secondly, this study analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation from three stages by combining the specific research content of important literature and the degree of integration of digital technology and social development. The research combines the evolution of theory, the iteration of research hotspot and the change of application scenario, which provides a new perspective for the research of digital transformation;Third, combined with the actual situation of the current global economic development, the future research direction in the field of digital transformation is prospected. Specific chapter arrangement: In Chapter 1, bibliometric analysis is carried out on the development process of digital transformation research; Chapter 2 systematically analyzes the evolution process of digital transformation research. Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, as the main content of this paper, specifically expounds the hot spot distribution and changes of digital transformation research and development. Finally, Chapter 3 summarizes the research conclusions of this paper, and prospects the key research and development direction of digital transformation in the future. The research results prove that: First, The application of digital technology brings new challenges to the development of traditional industries, prompts the transformation of innovation theory and practice at the industrial level, and promotes the academic circles to continuously focus on the research of digital technology innovation and its application scenarios; Secondly, In the era of digital transformation, digital technology changes the industry by creating new products, and promotes the academia to focus on the research on key issues such as its value acquisition and value creation methods; Third, Digital innovation has become an important basis for industrial digitalization, digital entrepreneurship has become an important support for digital industrialization and an important practice for value creation of digital innovation, which promotes the continuous emergence of "digital-based"research in academic circles. On this basis, the paper looks forward to the future research of digital transformation. It focuses on the analysis of five main contents of the future research: innovation governance digital transformation, the structure of production factors in the era of digital transformation, the process of industrial digital transformation, the construction of digital transformation into the social development environment, and the normative development of platform economy and regulatory governance. The conclusion provides knowledge increment for the development of theoretical research and industrial practice innovation in this field.

Key words: digital transformation, application scenario, digital technology, innovation, entrepreneurship