Digital Transformation in Emerging Economies

Abstract

The major driver of the waves of change in the business environment is technology, which has created significant gaps among companies, countries and regions. The major challenge faced by the organisation both private and state owned is the ease with which they adopt digitalisation to sail through waves of change. The risk associated with digital transformation is double aged sword because it brings both good and adverse effects upon an organisation. The concept of governance and risk compliance (GRC) has been born in recent years, and its intensity is determined by the technology levels of absorption. When an organisation adopts technology, the intention is to meet the objectives (governance) but this in turn brings and exposes the organisation to losses (risks) which in turn triggers many rules from regulators (compliance). Many organisations, therefore, are failing to balance this principled performance due to a high corporate governance risk. Some case studies show that a fine-tuned blending of digitalisation brings in huge returns within a short time, while other organisations have been kept aligned for years and reacting to market digital changes for survival. In many developed countries, governance risk is so high that a slight let off in the use of technology would lead to major losses, and hence there is a constant holding to the thread of innovation daily. Countries and governments in developing countries on the other hand are laggers and have kept on following behind the technological trails of those from the western world.