TY - JOUR T1 - Barriers to Value Specification when Carrying out Digitalization Projects JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2021 A1 - Sten Grahn A1 - Anna Granlund A1 - Erik Lindhult KW - automation KW - digitalization KW - effectiveness KW - resource-efficiency KW - Value specification AB - If digitalization projects aim to effectively create value for a company, one precondition is having a shared view among company staff and project members of what the "desirable" value is. However, it has been shown that few companies fully understand the value that digitalization projects can create for them, while many companies still launch digitalization projects without having gained much understanding. This contributes to the current "alarmingly" low success rate for digitalization projects. Developing effective methods to specify the desired values of digitalization projects has hence become important. One step in developing improved specification methods is to ask what the possible barriers are to improving current value specification practices. The purpose of the current study is to address this. We analyzed several digitalization projects regarding how specifications of desired project value were carried out, finding that very limited resources are spent on specifying desired values in digitalization projects, this limits project success. Likewise, there are several barriers to increasing resources for specifying desired values. Our findings contribute to understanding the development of value specification methods that aim to overcome these barriers and thus could help improve the success rate of digitalization projects. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 11 UR - timreview.ca/article/1442 IS - 5 U1 - Mälardalen University Sten Grahn has several years of experience in the manufacturing and energy industries, including several leading industrial roles and responsibilities. He currently holds a position as senior lecturer at the Division of Product Realization, Mälardalen University. He also holds a position as a researcher for RISE IVF AB. His main research interests concern system optimization and automation, especially identifying how resource efficiency efforts should be balanced to generate environmentally sustainable business, as well as long-term profits. U2 - Mälardalen University Anna Granlund holds a position as senior lecturer at the Division of Product Realization, Mälardalen University. Her research interests are in the area of production development, specifically technology development in the manufacturing industry. Her research mainly addresses strategy and organizational aspects of technology development, as well as coordinating production and technology development in IMNs. She has thirteen years of experience coproducing research projects in the areas of automation development and managing production development in IMNs. U3 - Mälardalen University Erik Lindhult holds a position as senior lecturer at the Division of Innovation Management, Mälardalen University, Sweden. His main area of research is service innovation, systemic innovation, and value-driven innovation. He has been engaged in research, education, and with the international research community for several decades on participatory, collaborative, and democratic approaches to action research and innovation, as well as entrepreneurship for sustainable social development. ER -