On the Role of Social Media Analytics in Steering the Digital Transformation of Organizations through Developing Data-driven Dynamic Capabilities

Digital transformation is probably the most attention-grabbing phenomenon in contemporary business-related and managerial discourses. Nowadays, organizations have acknowledged the fruitful impacts of digital transformation on their businesses, so they are trying to implement this transformative journey. However, they have recognized that this is not a short-term project or an easy-going process, so they are struggling to find an appropriate organizational asset to empower them in following this journey appropriately. In this theoretical study, we have introduced social media analytics as such an asset. Accordingly, drawing on the dynamic capability view, we attempted at developing eight propositions and elaborating a theoretical framework in which social media analytics is seen as a great source of data-driven dynamic capabilities (i.e., data-driven environmental scanning, data-driven organizational agility, and data-driven product / service innovation).  These propositions are, in turn, positively associated with the main building blocks of digital transformation implementation including digital disruption detection, digital strategy formulation, and digital value creation. Our theoretical framework describes some of the mechanisms through which social media analytics can benefit organizations in steering their digital transformation journey.