Browsing by Subject "Digital Transformation"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Digital Transformation Practices in the College of Education and Human Development at University of Minnesota Twin Cities
    (2023-11) HIKO, MUHAMMED
    The continuous and massive pressure for innovation, as well as the impacts of COVID-19, have accelerated the demand for digital transformation (DT) in every sector. DT refers to fundamental change brought about by the adaption and integration of digital technologies that enhance workplace culture and performance excellence in higher education institutions. Although DT is underway across sectors, few studies have been conducted on this topic, especially in higher education. As a result, this study was initiated to further explore DT practices in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) Twin Cities (TC). Using a qualitative single case study design, this study addressed four basic research questions, including: What has been the evolution of DT? How has it affected the workplace culture? How has DT contributed to performance excellence? and what are the major challenges in moving towards DT? A semi-structured interview was conducted with thirteen administrative and student-supportive service staff members who were selected using purposive sampling techniques. Additionally, documents were reviewed, and a thematic approach was used to organize and analyze data. This study revealed that several digital technologies have been adopted and integrated with institutional systems. Also, DT practices maximized work flexibility, accessibility of college services, collaboration, data management, capacity to track work in progress, avoided redundancy of work, decreased office costs, hall rental costs, travel, and paperwork expenditures. However, DT has brought several challenges, including employees’ missing sense of community, the digital divide, and anxiety about emerging digital technologies. Finally, administrative and student support staff of CEHD reported needing more human, financial, and technological support to accelerate DT practices that enhance their workplace culture and performance excellence.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Essays on Digital Transformation: Turning Data Into Assets
    (2022-11) Gangarapu, Sandeep Kumar
    Digital transformation is defined as the use of digital technologies to transform every area of an existing business. A 2019 McKinsey report \citep{bughin2020} found that the top 10\% of the digitized incumbents earned 80\% of the revenue in their industries. One of the key strategic themes of digital transformation is to turn data the company collects into assets \citep{rogers2016digital}. In this thesis, we look at two different contexts, randomized control trials and referral marketing. In the first essay, we define a prescriptive analytics framework that addresses the needs of a budget constrained decision-maker facing, ex-ante, unknown costs and benefits of multiple policy levers to maximize overall utility from the randomized control trial data that the company already stores. we find a targeting strategy that produces an order of magnitude improvement in expected total utility compared to existing methods. In the second essay, we solve some of the challenges associated with referral marketing by turning the referral data that the company has into an asset. We investigate how referral targeting compares to algorithmic targeting in its effectiveness. We understand the mechanisms behind a referral and why they are valuable. We also unpack the effects of `information' and `influence' that play a role in the purchase decision of a referred customer.