Theorizing the Plausibility of Exponential Organizations through Digital Transformation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Abstract

The age of billion USD startups and trillion USD organizations are here signaling the birth of a new era, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). Pervasive and inexpensive digital technologies are causing widespread industrial, economic, and social disruption around us. Technological advancements have a major impact on the conduct of business and the move from the physical world to the digital world during Industry 4.0 will have far reaching and transformative implications for business organizations. This new era will be defined and dominated by a new breed of organizations, the Exponential Organization (ExO). The ExO’s are adopting exponential technologies along with new organizational techniques and are capable of generating disproportionately larger impact than their peer organizations. The properties of ExOs are diverse and this paper explores the concept of an ExO, how it emerged, internal and external traits that define them.