Theoretical Foundations for Researching Digital Transformation in External Corporate Communications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/2522-1272.2025.87.13Keywords:
Digital transformation, corporate communications, digital maturity, CommTech, strategic communicationsAbstract
The object of this study is the digital transformation of external corporate communications – a process that reshapes the ways organizations interact with stakeholders and build trust in the digital age. The relevance of the topic lies in the fact that digital tools open new channels of interaction but simultaneously require a rethinking of theoretical foundations, an assessment of digital maturity, and the development of integrated models for strategic communication management, especially under conditions of rapid socio-technological change. The purpose of the study is to synthesize classical and modern approaches in the field of communications and, on this basis, to develop a model that helps with the assessment of digital maturity and the visualization of interdisciplinary connections in transformation processes. The research methods include the analysis and synthesis of scientific sources, a comparative approach to juxtaposing classical and modern frameworks, as well as modeling and abstraction to construct conceptual frameworks. The main findings are the formulation of two models of digital transformation in external communications. The first is the External Corporate Communication Maturity Model (ECCMM), a five-level maturity model that describes the gradual progression from basic to innovative practices. The second is the TOC model (Technical, Organizational, Communicational), which explains the interplay of technological, organizational, and communicative factors and proposes a set of indicators for future empirical testing. The proposed approaches provide a foundation both for standardizing academic research on digital transformation and for practically assessing the digital maturity of corporate communications in diverse contexts, including the Ukrainian one
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