Conclusion

Together, the digital transformation of firms and profitable business models pose one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for firms like German private family and publicly listed non-family firms. In this dissertation thesis, I have studied ‘why firms sometimes struggle on digital transformation through business model innovation and what specific characteristics of German private family firms and publicly listed non-family firms might influence struggling of firms’ digital transformation’.  According to my observations and analysis of 45 German private family and publicly listed non-family firms, and 50 owners and C-level manager interviews, it is not the organizational model, but rather people that could make the difference between failure and success on business model innovation under digital framework conditions.