Digitalizing Traditional Manufacturing Enterprises:A Three-Stage Evolutionary Model from the Perspective of Structure and Agency

Emerging digital technology are bringing convenience to the global economy and transforming business organizations.The structural changes brought about by digitalization are particularly significant for enterprises in traditional industries.Starting from the perspective of the debate between structure and agency in sociology,this paper first discusses the necessity of digital transformation of traditional manufacturing enterprises under the background of digital economy,and then explains the drivers and potential obstacles of digital transformation from the perspective of the coexistence of structure regulation and agency initiative.Based on this,this paper further studies the practice of enterprise digital transformation,and proposes a three-stage model of organizational adaptation(EEI model),namely,the experimentation period(partial digitalization),the expansion period(platform digitalization)and the integration period(ecosystem digitalization).Each of these three stages has its own independent characteristics,and is also an indispensable link in the process of enterprise digitalization,which determines the continuity and integrity of its transformation.The three-stage evolution model based on the structure and agency perspective has important theoretical and practical significance for enterprise digital development.

Research on digital transformation of China's traditional manufacturing industry enabled by digital economy based on system dynamics

The digital transformation of traditional manufacturing industry is an inevitable trend and inherent development requirement of China’s digital economy.This paper systematically researches the digital transformation mechanism of traditional manufacturing industry enabled by digital economy from the social,technical,innovative environmental and organizational sub-systems based on the system dynamics(SD)and the social shaping of technology theory(SST).The simulated experiments predicate the different digital transformation paths of the labor-intensive,capital-intensive and technology-intensive traditional manufacturing enterprises under the guidance of Industry 4.0 or"Industry of the future"policy by constructing the system dynamics model of causality,stock flow process,which has vital significance for China’s manufacturing industry to transform from a giant towards a manufacturing power.