Sowing the Right Seeds & Harvesting Digital Transformation : A case study of drivers and barriers to digital transformation in the forestry industry

Abstract: Digital transformation (DT) continuously reshapes and disrupts industries organizations operate in. Although the rising phenomenon is increasingly being investigated by academia, the factors influencing the adoption of DT in pre-digital and traditional industries are sufficiently unexplored. This study investigates managers’ perspectives on the drivers and barriers surrounding DT in traditional industries. To do this, we conducted an industry-level qualitative case study of the five biggest firms in the Swedish forestry industry. Through analysis using a DT framework, our results indicate that changing customers’ expectations and improving firm performance, to name a few, were the main drivers for DT in the forestry industry. However, our findings revealed that the main barriers to DT were related to the cultural and organizational identities of employees in the forestry industry. This study contributes to existing literature and provides suggestions for practitioners in traditional industries to address the challenges that may arise during the digital transformation process.