Islam, Sigma
(2025)
Executives’ role, characteristics and strategic choice in the digital age.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
Digital technologies have transformed the business landscapes by changing the nature of products, services, business models and operations, which are influencing how organisations can create value through their corporate strategies and emphasising the need for digital strategy.
The role of top managers has changed in this digital world, which is encouraging research on the role and characteristics of the Top Management Team (TMT)/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in digitisation.
I achieve this in this thesis through five research objectives, which are examining the key decision maker in digital strategy, his/her role in such strategy, which of the TMT characteristics are conducive to adopting such strategy and the influence of CEO characteristics in digital strategy adoption and on the speed of such adoption. In doing so, I incorporate upper-echelon, human capital, and dynamic managerial capital theories into digitisation and Mobile Financial Services (MFS) literature.
I have made two research design choices for my thesis. To achieve the first three research objectives, I choose qualitative study as the research design. In the literature, I found that there is a lack of exploratory understanding of the key decision-maker in digital strategy adoption, his/her roles and characteristics conducive to such adoption decisions (see Chapter 4). The exploratory understanding is better developed by conducting qualitative research, which I have done in this thesis (See Chapter 4).
To achieve the fourth and fifth research objectives, I choose quantitative study as the research design. Once an exploratory understanding is developed about a particular phenomenon like digital strategy and the role and characteristics of TMT conducive to such strategy, the relationship between the two aspects can be tested empirically to further knowledge development, which I have done in my quantitative studies (see Chapter 5 and Chapter 6). Thus, I have used a mixed-method research design for this thesis. I have conducted my research on the financial sector of Bangladesh, Malaysia, and Thailand. For the qualitative study, where the objectives are to identify the instrumental member of TMT, his/her role in the adoption of digital strategy and the TMT characteristics which make them predisposed to adopt such strategy, I conducted 20 in-depth interviews in Bangladesh, which were further validated by conducting an additional six interviewees from Malaysia and Thailand, the other two emerging economies of the region.
By applying phenomenography and thematic analysis, I found that CEO is viewed as the primary initiator of digital strategy adoption in the financial sector and plays the role of idea generator, advocate and decision-maker. On the other hand, the Board of Directors, regulators and channel members work as enablers in the adoption decision. Identifying the instrumental TMT member in digital strategy adoption merits the scholars by providing insights that the historical role of the CEO applies in a similar fashion in digital strategy adoption as proposed by upper-echelon theory. Likewise, the identification of an instrumental member of the TMT, which is the CEO, complements the existing knowledge of the CDO (Chief Digital Officer), which suggests that the CDO works as an initiator and coordinator of digitisation across the organisation
Furthermore, My study suggests that TMT characteristics such as IT knowledge, specialist and overseas education and experience, digital training, and mindset (such as vision, guts, willingness to invest in technology, and willingness to adapt) influence decisions to initiate digital strategy. The identification of the ranges of the TMT characteristics contributes to the existing debate on whether general competencies of top management or digital competencies are required in the digitisation of organisations.
My qualitative research findings guided my quantitative research. For example, qualitative research findings helped me to choose the CEO as the focal person and the characteristics of the CEO that influence the adoption and the speed of adoption of digital strategy for my quantitative studies. Furthermore, my qualitative study also helped me develop appropriate digital strategy measures, which I used for my quantitative studies.
I have fitted a negative binomial regression analysis for my quantitative study 1, where I have used 824 bank-year observations of seventy-three local banks of Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. The dependent variable is a digital strategy, and the independent variables are CEOs’ IT (Information Technology) knowledge, MBA degree, overseas education, experience and overseas experience. The findings of my quantitative research suggest that CEOs’ IT knowledge, MBA degree and experience positively influence the adoption of digital strategy. Similarly, company size positively moderates the relationship between CEOs’ MBA degrees and the adoption of digital strategy and CEOs’ overseas education and adoption of digital strategy. This again contributes to the existing debate on whether general competencies of top management or digital competencies are required in the digitisation of organisations by revealing that both general competencies and digital competencies are required for the adoption of digital strategy.
I took care of time to adopt the digital strategy and have fitted duration analysis for my quantitative study 2. Here, again I have used 824 bank-year observations of seventy-three local banks of Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand. The dependent variable is MFS, and the independent variables are CEOs’ IT knowledge, overseas education, and overseas experience. The findings of my quantitative study 2 reveal that CEOs’ IT knowledge and overseas experience positively influence the speed of adoption of digital strategy. Likewise, the company growth rate positively moderates the relationship between CEOs’ overseas education and the speed of adoption of MFS, and in contrast, the company growth rate negatively moderates the relationship between CEO overseas experience and the speed of adoption of MFS. It not only contributes to the debate on whether general competencies of top management or digital competencies are required in the digitisation of organisations but also whether the top-management competencies influence the time of adoption.
Most of the findings of the qualitative study match with quantitative studies except overseas education. Participants mentioned that overseas education is a vital TMT/CEO characteristic in the adoption of digital strategy. However, I did not find any significance of overseas education in either of my quantitative studies.
By identifying the role and characteristics of TMT/CEO in the adoption of digital strategy, I contribute to the digitisation, top-management and MFS literature.
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