Digitalization of the financial function in Finnish corporations
Lamminpää, Otto-Oskari (2018)
2018
Tietojohtaminen
Talouden ja rakentamisen tiedekunta - Faculty of Business and Built Environment
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-12-05
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201811192618
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201811192618
Tiivistelmä
The financial function of corporations around the world is transforming. This is due to the accelerating clock speed of business, the increasing pressure to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency but also the growing expectations and demand for better services with more advanced deliverables. Large corporations view disruptive technologies as the most profitable solution to fulfill the demanding requirements. Without a digital transformation, they risk becoming an impediment, a bottleneck for the business. The paradigm shift is also visible in the transforming role of the chief financial officer (CFO). Often perceived as traditionalists and corporate auditors, CFOs are now assuming the roles of financial strategists, business partners and, increasingly, digital leaders. This changes the CFO function’s modus operandi significantly, even more so in the future as the transformation accelerates. However, the status of digitalization in Finnish corporations is unclear with little research available.
The objective of this research is to provide insights to the current status of digitalization in the CFO functions of large Finnish corporations and how the transformations could be accelerated. To approach the problem holistically, it is divided into three parts: the CFO function’s digital maturity, technology enablers in the CFO function and the effects of organizational and cultural factors. The research was conducted in two parts: a literature review and an empirical study. The literature review explored the theoretical framework with a goal to gain knowledge on the topics. In the empirical study, semi-structured interviews were used to validate the contents of the findings from the theory. Then, a questionnaire was used to survey the CFO functions of the largest Finnish corporations on the topics. The sample size of the survey was 42.
The results of this research indicate that the digital maturity of Finnish corporations is, on average, lower than their European competitors. The technological maturity is low-er as well, as Finnish CFO functions are slightly slower to adopt disruptive technologies with less complex business applications. On the other hand, the adoption rate is accelerating rapidly. Furthermore, CFOs are especially focused in business process improvements and process automation as those are perceived to deliver the most tangible benefits. The most significant threats that digital transformations face are often organizational and cultural challenges, for example, poor vertical communication of digital strategy and poor organizational agility. The identified key success factors in digital transformations are change management and driving the transformations with digital leadership. The results provide novel information to the business and academic communities on the status of digitalization in the CFO function, on the effects of digitalization on the financial function and on the ways to support digital transformations.
The objective of this research is to provide insights to the current status of digitalization in the CFO functions of large Finnish corporations and how the transformations could be accelerated. To approach the problem holistically, it is divided into three parts: the CFO function’s digital maturity, technology enablers in the CFO function and the effects of organizational and cultural factors. The research was conducted in two parts: a literature review and an empirical study. The literature review explored the theoretical framework with a goal to gain knowledge on the topics. In the empirical study, semi-structured interviews were used to validate the contents of the findings from the theory. Then, a questionnaire was used to survey the CFO functions of the largest Finnish corporations on the topics. The sample size of the survey was 42.
The results of this research indicate that the digital maturity of Finnish corporations is, on average, lower than their European competitors. The technological maturity is low-er as well, as Finnish CFO functions are slightly slower to adopt disruptive technologies with less complex business applications. On the other hand, the adoption rate is accelerating rapidly. Furthermore, CFOs are especially focused in business process improvements and process automation as those are perceived to deliver the most tangible benefits. The most significant threats that digital transformations face are often organizational and cultural challenges, for example, poor vertical communication of digital strategy and poor organizational agility. The identified key success factors in digital transformations are change management and driving the transformations with digital leadership. The results provide novel information to the business and academic communities on the status of digitalization in the CFO function, on the effects of digitalization on the financial function and on the ways to support digital transformations.