A Systematic Literature Review on Digital Transformation in Higher Education: Revealing Key Success Factors

Abstract

To answer the challenges and take advantage of opportunities in this digital era, digital transformation (DT) is carried out in various fields, including higher education. Although DT does not yet have an agreed-upon definition, several papers provide approaches to understanding it. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to understand DT in higher education by addressing the research questions of what, why, and how to conduct DT in higher education. Sixty-six papers from five digital libraries, namely IEEE Xplore, Scopus, Web of Science, SpringerLink, and ScienceDirect, are discussed in this paper. The results of the SLR reveal that in higher education, the success of DT is strongly influenced by the leadership of executive in managing the institution to overcome barriers, to adopt appropriate strategies, and to maintain a consistent approach to implementation.