Capabilities for the Strategic Alignment of Sustainability and Digitalization in Manufacturing: Insights from Theory and Practice

Sustainability and digitalization are two key transformation tasks for future business success in the manufacturing industry. Companies are faced with the challenge of aligning both transformations to meet business objectives and generate competitive advantages in the market. However, the so-called dual transformation is a complex management task that requires socio-technical capabilities encompassing human, organizational, and technological aspects. These capabilities are still opaque and unknown. To identify them, we conducted a literature review and an interview study with company experts. Our analysis resulted in 26 capabilities structured along a reference model. The results support manufacturing companies in the strategic alignment of sustainability and digitalization and structure the research field of dual transformation for further exploration.