Why Business Digitalization Is Still So Risky: An Analysis of 54 Cases

Due to rapid IT advances and escalated globalization, business digitalization has been accelerating. However, the average success rate of such endevors remains low. As an attempt to reveal why the digital transformation of a business is still so risky, this research analyzes how commonly encountered risks in IS projects are responded to and how the responses affect project outcomes. Resulting from the authors' previous work, they hypothesize that information systems are much more complex as they play an increasingly pivotal role in executing most business functions, and subsequently, the risk pattern of IS projects may have evolved, and that as businesses keep adding more information systems to the enterprise infrastructure, rather than via a piecemeal approach, a framework for enterprise-wide digital integration must be established to guide and evaluate business digitalization. The finding from this research should largely validate their hypotheses and allow them to call for a refocus of the efforts on digitalizing an enterprise.