Key Competences for Digital Business Model Innovation of Industrial Companies

Abstract

Digital transformation is confronting traditional industrial companies with the challenge of not only optimising their internal processes, but also establishing entirely new, digital business models (DBM). In some cases, this requires different competences than in traditional business. In the AgilHybrid research project, a model of 20 key competences that are critical to the success of DBM development was developed. These competences can be bundled into the five areas of entrepreneurial capabilities, adaptability, agile capabilities, collaborative capabilities and digital capabilities. In a CATI survey of 200 German industrial companies, the relevance of the selected competences for DBM development was validated. A multivariate regression model reveals that in particular the equipment of the companies with digital competences as well as the use of agile development methods influence the probability that a company offers digital business models successfully on the market. These competences seem to contribute as important enablers to the dynamic capabilities of seizing and transforming in the context of developing new DBM.