From Industry to Higher Education: Adapting the 'Seven Levers of Digital Transformation' and Their Applicability for the Digital Transformation of Universities

10 pages•Published: November 6, 2025

Dennis Winterholler, Michael Martin and Andreas Hartmann

Abstract

This paper examines the transferability of the "Seven Levers of Digital Transformation" by the Open Group to the higher education sector. The analysis reveals that a context-specific adaptation is necessary to address digital challenges. Anti-patterns such as lack of direction, long decision-making processes, and system failures are particularly relevant in smaller universities. The findings underline the usage of the Seven Levers of Digital Transformation and highlight importance of adapted industrial standards for digital transformation. Future research should focus on developing strategies to activate the levers and assess the suitability of other industrial models.

Keyphrases: digital transformation, higher education, the open group seven levers

In: Laurence Desnos, Raimund Vogl, Lazaros Merakos, Carmen Diaz, Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz and Stuart Mclellan (editors). Proceedings of EUNIS 2025 annual congress in Belfast, vol 107, pages 324-333.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/sp2B
	https://doi.org/10.29007/jqcf

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{EUNIS2025:From_Industry_Higher_Education,
  author    = {Dennis Winterholler and Michael Martin and Andreas Hartmann},
  title     = {From Industry to Higher Education: Adapting the 'Seven Levers of Digital Transformation' and Their Applicability for the Digital Transformation of Universities},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of EUNIS 2025 annual congress in Belfast},
  editor    = {Laurence Desnos and Raimund Vogl and Lazaros Merakos and Carmen Diaz and Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz and Stuart Mclellan},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Computing},
  volume    = {107},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-7340},
  url       = {/publications/paper/sp2B},
  doi       = {10.29007/jqcf},
  pages     = {324-333},
  year      = {2025}}

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