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

Once data and information can be placed on the different applications, focal actors
can develop services that can benefit specific individuals or collective users. For instance,
retailers can continue to create applications for the front-end interface for customers and
other retail ecosystem actors (Wulfert et al., 2022). Retailers, ESL system integrators, and

digital service providers create applications to strengthen the bonds among them. Then,
retailers can develop services, such as implementing an omnichannel strategy through
an online-merge-offline (OMO) approach (for example, webrooming and showrooming)

(Herrero-Crespo, Viejo-Fernández, Collado-Agudo, and Sanzo Pérez, 2022; Mukherjee
and Chatterjee, 2021). This service can help enhance the customer shopping experience by
reducing availability risks and product uncertainty (Cambra-Fierro, Gao, Melero-Polo, and
Trifu, 2021; Gao and Su, 2017).
Lastly, once services are applied, focal actors can optimize collaboration with

other value chain ecosystems to establish digital solutions, a computerized approach to
addressing a specific problem. Digital solutions should be able to integrate and change
existing activities (Pagani and Pardo, 2017). ESL can create connected labeling solutions

that provide a much broader network to help transform the retail ecosystem through digital
technology, from the physical and digital shops to its existing supply chain network. Those
solutions should involve the four other layers.

5.2 Proposed Digital Transformation Stages from an Information Density Perspective

and Its Impact on Business and Ecosystem
In an ecosystem, various actors are connected through an interdependent network
to acknowledge value propositions (Adner, 2017; Jacobides et al., 2018). The ecosystem

as a structure emphasizes the breakdown of industry boundaries to include an array of
interdependent actors. The multi-dependency of actors interacts with focal objects, creating
network embeddedness that can serve as a more proximate and accessible stimulus. Digital
transformation occurs in an ecosystem that does not necessarily focus only on the adoption
of emerging technology. Moreover, through collaborative actions, technology evolves to

fit and enhance existing business models. Hence, technology is changing along with the
journey of digital transformation.
As the adopter of the technology, the focal actor installs infrastructure and hardware

to connect with digital technology. Adopting technology requires re-engineering as the

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