Digitalization of businesses has received much attention in recent years. Many different
domains of academic research are today increasingly concerned with the how firms are affected
by digitalization and how they can realize the novel opportunities that have emerged. Digital
Business is increasingly regarded as a distinct topic within academia. As the roots of such a
concept can be derived from a wide range of different literature fields such as information
systems, entrepreneurship, strategic management, innovation management, systems of
innovation etc there is presently a need for bringing these diverse approaches together. This
course provides an overview of the subject Digital Business with a particular focus on industrial
dynamics, i.e. the competitive implications for firms and industries. In doing so, it prepares the
doctoral student for performing research within the subject of digital business.

On completion of the course, the students will be able to:

Present an overview of the field of digital business and show an understanding of different
stands of literature that deal with the topic.

Identify gaps in current research and formulate research questions related to these gaps.

Critically evaluate contributions to the field of digital business.

The course begins with a background and introduction to digital business. The following
sessions cover how various academic fields within management dealt with the topic
previously. Each session covers a couple of central contributions to digital business within a
certain field, e.g. industrial dynamics or innovation studies. Explicit attention is devoted to the
identification of current gaps in research and how doctoral students can formulate research
questions related to addressing these gaps.

The course is based on reading assigned material, preparations, discussion seminars and
presentation seminars. This means that students are required to take an active approach to
their own learning. There are written assignments and oral presentations in the course.
All teaching will take place over Zoom. Teaching sessions will be highly interactive, contain
plenty of presentations and include participation from key scholars in the field. Sessions will
deal explicitly with how the participant can identify gaps in research or make use of papers
for their own doctoral work.

Undervisningen bedrivs på engelska.

Admitted in a doctoral programme of a recognized business school or university.

Kursen bedöms med betygen Underkänd eller Godkänd.

The course will be examined in the following way:
• Handins, Seminar attendance, presentations and active contribution to discussion (50%)
fulfill ILOs 1, 3
• Assignment: Completion and presentation of term paper (50%) fulfill ILOs 1, 2, 3
All parts of the examination is individual. All parts of the examination must be passed to
achieve a grade in the course.
The grades for the course are “pass” or “fail”.

A course evaluation will be conducted at the end of the course.

Session 1 Introduction, Digital business, innovation and industrial dynamics
26 of February, 13-16 SWE time
Readings
Arthur, B.W. (1996) Increasing Returns and the New World of Business, Harvard Business
Review, July-Aug.
Christensen, C. M., & Rosenbloom, R. S. (1995). Explaining the attacker's advantage:
Technological paradigms, organizational dynamics, and the value network. Research
policy, 24(2), 233-257.
Tripsas, M. (1997) Unraveling the process of creative destruction: complementary assets and
incumbent survival in the typesetter industry, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 18(S1), pp.
119-142
Tushman, M. L., & Anderson, P. (1986). Technological discontinuities and organizational
environments. Administrative science quarterly, 439-465.
Session 2 Digital business and entrepreneurship
4 of March, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Nambisan, S. 2016. Digital Entrepreneurship: Toward a Digital Technology Perspective of
Entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 41(6): 1029–1055.
Von Briel, F., Davidsson, P. & Recker, J. 2018. Digital Technologies as External Enablers of
New Venture Creation in the IT Hardware Sector. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice,
42(1), 47-69.
Srinivasan, A. &Venkatraman, N. 2018. Entrepreneurship in digital platforms: A networkcentric
view. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 12(1), 54 -71.
Session 3 Digital business and Information Systems
5 of March, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Yoo, Y., Henfridsson, O., & Lyytinen, K. (2010). Research commentary—the new organizing
logic of digital innovation: an agenda for information systems research. Information systems
research, 21(4), 724-735.
Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O. A., Pavlou, P. A., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business
strategy: toward a next generation of insights. MIS quarterly, 471-482.
Session 4 Digital business, strategy and business models
11 of March, 10-12 SWE time
Readings
Achtenhagen, L., Melin, L., & Naldi, L. (2013). Dynamics of business models–strategizing,
critical capabilities and activities for sustained value creation. Long range planning, 46(6),
427-442.
Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2001). Value creation in e-business. Strategic management
journal, 22(6-7), 493-520.
Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. (2011). The business model: recent developments and future
research. Journal of management, 37(4), 1019-1042.
Tripsas, M., & Gavetti, G. (2000). Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: Evidence from digital
imaging. Strategic management journal, 21(10-11), 1147-1161.
Session 5 Digital business and Innovation studies
12 of March, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Dosi, G. (1982). Technological paradigms and technological trajectories: a suggested
interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change. Research policy, 11(3),
147-162.
Lundvall, B. Å., Johnson, B., Andersen, E. S., & Dalum, B. (2002). National systems of
production, innovation and competence building. Research policy, 31(2), 213-231.
Geels, F. W. (2004). From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights
about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory. Research policy, 33(6-7),
897-920.
Session 6 Digital business and institutional change
18 of March, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Peng, MW, S Li Sun, B Pinkham and H Chen (2009). The institution based view as a third leg
for a strategy tripod. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(4), 63–81
Garud, R., Jain, S., & Kumaraswamy, A. (2002). Institutional entrepreneurship in the
sponsorship of common technological standards: The case of Sun Microsystems and
Java. Academy of management journal, 45(1), 196-214.
Funk, R. J., & Hirschman, D. (2014). Derivatives and deregulation: Financial innovation and
the demise of Glass–Steagall. Administrative science quarterly, 59(4), 669-704.
Gurses, K., & Ozcan, P. (2015). Entrepreneurship in regulated markets: Framing contests and
collective action to introduce pay TV in the US. Academy of Management Journal, 58(6),
1709-1739.
Session 7 Digital business and Digital methods
19 march, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Stieglitz S, Dang-Xuan L, Bruns A, Neuberger C. (2014). Social Media Analytics. Business &
Information Systems Engineering, 6(2), 89-96.
Stieglitz, S., Mirbabaie, M., Ross, B., & Neuberger, C. (2018). Social media analytics–
Challenges in topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation. International journal of
information management, 39, 156-168.
Geissinger, A., Laurell, C., Öberg, C., Sandström, C., Sick, N., Suseno, Y. (2020) Social
Media Analytics for acquisition of market and non-market perceptions in the sharing
economy, accepted for publication in Journal of Knowledge Management.
Session 8 Digital business and Digital history
25 of March, 13-15 SWE time
Readings
Cheung, Z. (2020). Analytically Structured History Approach Using a Relational Database-
Essays on the Historical Embeddedness of Strategy Formulation.
Rowlinson, M., Hassard, J., & Decker, S. (2014). Research strategies for organizational
history: A dialogue between historical theory and organization theory. Academy of
Management Review, 39(3), 250-274.
Eriksson, K., Ernkvist, M., Laurell, C., Moodysson, J., Nykvist, R., & Sandström, C. (2019).
A revised perspective on innovation policy for renewal of mature economies–Historical
evidence from finance and telecommunications in Sweden 1980–1990. Technological
Forecasting and Social Change, 147, 152-162.
Laurell, C., Sandström, C., Eriksson, K., & Nykvist, R. (2020). Digitalization and the future
of Management Learning: New technology as an enabler of historical, practice-oriented, and
critical perspectives in management research and learning. Management Learning, 51(1), 89-
108.
Session 9 Digital business and Digital history
26 of March, 13-16 SWE time
Final presentations and course wrap up