Challenges and obstacles in the food industry

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Digitalization

The quick evolution and improvements of digital technology force companies and organizations to change and restructure their business models, which is the outcome of the digital transformation and digitalization (Dornberger, Inglese, Korkut & Zhong, 2018; Rogers, 2016; Weill & Woerner, 2018; Hänninen, Smedlund & Mitronen, 2017). Digitalization is a concept defined by Brennen and Kreiss (2016, p.1) as “the way many domains of social life are restructured around digital communication and media infrastructures.” The word digitalization derives from the word of digitization, which is the procedure of transforming analogue data into digital form. Digitalization describes the change possibly due to the digitization and is considered as one of the most significant trends that have revolutionized the society and the way of doing business (Dornberger et al., 2018; Parviainen et al., 2017).
This is also discussed by Rogers (2016), as he states five different domains of how digitalization changes the way of doing business. The first domain discussed by Rogers (2016) is the customer perspective. In the digital age, customers are constantly interacting with other customers, and by using digital tools, they are even more influential. Therefore, it is critical for companies to use social media and interact with their customers. The second domain is competition, where the digitalization vanishes the boundaries between competition and cooperation. It will be possible to cooperate with a competitor in order to handle the same challenges that may occur from the outside of the industry and together push each other and hence develop the industry (ibid). Data is the third domain in the digitalization process, which is how to manage and utilize the information available. There are an immense of data and information accessible, and with the improved technology, it is a new way of doing analyses and enhances new ways of business activities. The data is crucial for the daily operations of the businesses (ibid). Through digitalization, the retailers can collect so-called big data from their day-to-day operations in forms of receipts, loyalty cards as well as the suppliers (Grewal, Roggeveen & Nordfält, 2017; Nordfält & Ahlbom, 2018). The fourth domain is the innovation process. The digital technologies make it easier for companies to quickly develop new products and test them on the market to receive feedback from the market continuously from the start until launch. It is essential to understand what the market wants and needs (Abrell, Pihlajamaa, Kanto, Vom Brocke, & Uebernickel, 2016). Nylén and Holmström (2015) argue that companies need to be agile and dynamic due to the rapid innovation process. They further state that digital products and services must be userfriendly and easy to learn, but also give the consumer experience. Hinings, Gegenhuber and Greenwood (2018), state that digital innovations are based on the available digital technology and need to be managed well. The last domain, presented by Rogers (2016), is value. He means that companies need to shift their value proposition reguarly to meet the customer’s expectations and being agile.
Weill and Woerner (2018) agree with Rogers (2016) that value proposition is essential for a company.
New entrants in the market are born digital and have a digital business model from the beginning.
Established companies must take the fight with the new entrants, and therefore, it is of high importance to changing their value proposition. Rogers (2016, p. 6) further confirms; “Companies that were established before the Internet need to realize that many of their fundamental assumptions must now be updated”.
Dornberger et al., (2018), explains digitalization as a journey with some key milestones in the development that are fundamental for the digitalization. Information systems are the first milestone, which includes data companies are using, the launch of the internet and world wide web (WWW), improved it-strategy in terms of it-security, technology or the intranet etc. These implementations started in the 1970s and are today basics in companies. The second step in the digitalization is to have an e-business application. Companies started to have their business online and developing systems to make it more convenient connecting with other organizations and selling their products to other companies (B2B) or consumers (B2C). With e-business collaboration with the supplier was easier to implement. The third action described by Dornberger et al., (2018), is the Web 2.0 revolution.

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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem discussion
1.3 Purpose
1.4 Definitions
2 Frame of Reference
2.1 Management
2.2 Change managemen
2.3 Digitalization
2.4 Digitalization in the food industry
2.5 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
3 Method & Methodology
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Research Philosophy
3.3 Research Method
3.4 Case Selection .
3.5 Primary Data .
3.6 Analysis Method .
3.7 Trustworthiness
3.8 Research Ethics
4 Empirical Findings
4.1 How food actors view digitalization in the industry
4.3 Resistance to changes for the industry actors
4.4 Market climate in the food industry
4.5 Opportunities within the food industry
4.6 Challenges and obstacles in the food industry
4.7 Collaboration between FMCG actor and supplier
5 Analysis
5.1 How food actors view digitalization in the industry
5.3 Resistance to changes for the industry actors
5.4 Market climate in the food industry
5.5 Opportunities within the food industry
5.6 Challenges and obstacles in the food industry
5.7 Collaboration between FMCG actor and supplier
6 Conclusions
7 Discussion
7.1 Theoretical implications
7.2 Managerial implications
7.3 Limitations
7.4 Future research
8 References
9 Appendices