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NTU Management Review Vol. 34 No. 3 Dec. 2024

advance the technology and turn it from a device into a solution?
The evolution of the ESL device creates a unique outcome. ESL shifts from a
piece of hardware into a solution that may change the retail ecosystem by offering new
services or products. Retailers anticipate ESLs to improve client experiences and bridge

the gap between online and offline settings. Digitization of price and product information
can then expand to become more fluid, allowing flexibility for information flow across
different platforms, not only on shelves. Theoretically, we can see this phenomenon in

terms of product and price information dematerialization, where dematerialization can
be conceptualized as the capacity to decouple the informational components of assets or
resources from physical environment (Lycett, 2013).
Specifically, dematerialization means lessening our reliance on physical resources.
For instance, Spotify can dematerialize our music consumption into a digital format,

reducing reliance on physical compact discs. Digital dematerialization can also help
reduce the use and investment of specific production resources. ESL can dematerialize the
product information and prices from the physical information on the shelf into a digital

format. It can influence the liquidity of the information, which is easily manipulated and
moved around different kinds of platforms. With information becoming more liquid, offline
and online channels become closer; ESLs enable retailers to better manage omnichannel
strategies and change the existing business landscape (Normann, 2001). Retailers can
promote products through reconfiguration and the entire value-creation process to

optimize its elements for relevant actors, asset availability, and asset costs, rather than just
the physical object. In other words, retailers can change the business landscape through a
connected labeling solution.

The liquification of the information occurs not only in a specific layer in the
ecosystem. Dąbrowska et al. (2022) conceptualizes that four layers in the ecosystem
can be affected by such digital transformation and change existing behavior: individuals
(Micro Level), organizations (Meso Level), ecosystem (Macro Level), and society (Meta
Level). This conceptualization aligns with network embeddedness theory (Granovetter,

1985), positing that the outcome of socio-economic activity affects the actor itself and
the overall network in which the actor resides. Supporting this theoretical background,
the socio-technical activity of technology adoption in digital transformation should be

able to affect not only individual actors, but also all networks at different levels (Breslin,

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