earticle

영어

In recent years, digital technologies and their embeddedness have attracted academic attention beyond information systems. There has been significant and steady growth in the number of publications on the different technical and organizational aspects of digital transformation. Digital transformation and the resulting business model innovations fundamentally change consumer expectations and behavior and disrupt the traditional market, putting tremendous pressure on businesses. Thus, organizations of all types and sizes emphasize digital transformation, which is becoming increasingly prevalent and necessary across all business functions. This form of organizational transformation often maximizes firm outcomes and profits, thereby responding to market demands and achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Finance departments are at the core of any enterprise. How should they build their frameworks and paths for digital transformation? Few studies have addressed this question. To fill the gap and enrich the theoretical connotations and practical guidance for the digital transformation of enterprise finance, we selected three representative Chinese companies, ZTE, Sany Group, and FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., as case studies to examine their successful path for the digital transformation of enterprise finance using qualitative analysis. We first propose a three-tier progressive theoretical framework for the digital transformation of enterprise finance: Financial sharing at the bottom level, financial automation and intelligence at the middle level, and financial digitalization at the top level. Then, a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the evolutionary path and the critical issues in the implementation process of their digital transformation of finance is provided from this framework. Our results show that the successful digital transformation of enterprise finance is not a simple linear development process but a cascading process of iterative renewal. More detailed conclusions can be summarized as follows: 1) Enterprises implement bottom-level financial sharing under operational pressure; 2) Enterprises have gradually evolved into middle-level financial automation and intelligence; 3) Enterprises practice top-level financial digitization using cloud computing, big data, and other tools. Our results offer a theoretical lens for scholars studying digital transformation in enterprise finance. Moreover, we provide practical insights for a better digital transformation of enterprise finance.