The Academic Roots of Digitalization: How the University Shaped Work Processes in Companies

Abstract

This chapter outlines how the academic field in Germany, particularly universities as institutions of research and education, became a constitutive element in the process of digitalization. Institutions in higher education created long-lasting networks not only by scientific relations in the academic field but also by the establishment of business-oriented and application-oriented disciplines. This chapter focuses on the case of business information systems (BIS) and reconstructs the structural conditions under which BIS evolved from an initially marginal data-centric subfield of business administration into an independent discipline. This discipline has had a major influence on the transformation of work processes in recent decades and is an important player in the digital transformation in Germany. This chapter therefore also outlines the far-reaching implications of the paths taken, which are eventually not limited to the academic field but manifested in transformed work processes in almost all professional fields.

Citation

Matthies, A. (2023), "The Academic Roots of Digitalization: How the University Shaped Work Processes in Companies", Stock, M., Mitterle, A. and Baker, D.P. (Ed.) How Universities Transform Occupations and Work in the 21st Century: The Academization of German and American Economies (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 47), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 25-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920230000047002