Digital Transformation

The WIFU Foundation’s publication *WIFU_compact_11: Digital Transformation* (2023) examines the digital transformation of family businesses as a profound social and organisational change. Digitalisation is not understood primarily as a technological challenge, but rather as a transition from an industrial to a knowledge-based society, in which knowledge, as a factor of production, follows different logic to that of capital or labour.

The publication shows why this structural change presents particular challenges for family businesses. Topics include the tension between traditional knowledge hoarding and the necessary openness, the fragility of established value creation networks, changed financing logics for knowledge-based business models, and mental barriers on the part of the owners. The high identification of the entrepreneurial family with the company is analysed both as a strength and as a potential obstacle to profound business model innovations.

As a conceptual framework, the publication introduces the concept of „dynamic capabilities“. This model structures digital transformation along the dimensions of sensing opportunities, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats, and systematically applies these to the governance, decision-making processes, knowledge management, and organisational structures of family businesses. Additionally, it is emphasised that digital transformation cannot be postponed for a coming successor generation but must be understood as a present leadership and shaping task.