Measuring the Barriers to the Digital Transformation in Management Courses – A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

With the rise of digital technologies, digital transformation (DT) has become an issue in the field of higher education. In higher education institutions and enterprises alike, DT means to digitalize internal processes and offer digital services and products. There are barriers that must be overcome to master this challenge. Our study follows an explorative mixed methods design. We identify the barriers to DT and transfer them to a research model. We examine the influence of individually perceived barriers on the DT process, thus contributing to the theoretical foundation of DT barriers in higher education institutions. This paper offers an approved scale to measure barriers to DT and a valid operationalization of DT barriers. The identified predictors can explain over 50% of the alteration problems of the DT process. Results indicate that management students have a significantly low level of concern regarding their privacy and traceability but demand more commitment at the organizational level. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.