Doctoral Research
Leadership Decision-Making and Digital Transformation Outcomes in UK Organisations
A three-phase qualitative study of how leadership behaviours and strategic decisions shape digital transformation outcomes, with UK-based senior executives in medium to large organisations. Initial interviews, then survey responses, then a shortlisted follow-up round.
Doctor of Business Administration · Leadership and Transformation · In progress
Chuks Anochie
Heriot-Watt University · Edinburgh Business School
Invitation to participate
If you have led a UK digital transformation, your experience belongs in this research.
The terms are documented before the invitation, not after. Read them. Decide.
Eligibility
UK-based senior executives who led or co-led a digital transformation programme in a UK organisation between 2013 and 2025.
Time commitment
Forty-five to sixty minutes for the initial interview, a standalone phase. Twenty to thirty minutes for the survey, with the option to continue into a follow-up interview of thirty to forty-five minutes.
Confidentiality
Approved by the Heriot-Watt research ethics committee. Responses and respondents are anonymised and confidential. You and your organisation will not be named in the thesis or any publication.
Output
The findings inform a leadership assessment framework for UK digital transformation. Contributing executives receive a summary of the framework on publication.
The thesis connection
The DBA tests, across a wider UK sample, whether leadership behaviour explains why some transformations convert investment to value and others do not.
The hypothesis is that leadership behaviour is upstream of those failures. The research tests it against a sample independent of my own engagements.
The full thesis →The research
Parameters documented before any data is collected.
The study sits inside a three-phase qualitative design. The parameters below are the bounds. The thesis is held to them.
Population
UK-based senior executives who have led digital transformation in UK organisations
Method
Three-phase qualitative design. Phase 1: A 45-60 minute initial interview. Phase 2: A 20-30 min online survey with Phase 1 participants excluded. Phase 3: An option 30-45 minute follow-up interviews with only shortlisted Phase 2 participants.
Sample
Executives who led or co-led a UK digital transformation programme between 2013 and 2025.
Timeframe
Digital transformation initiatives in the UK from 2013 to 2025
Outcomes
Transformation outcomes, strategic alignment, and the role of leadership behaviour.
Comparison
Leadership styles and practices across successful and failed transformations
Supervisor
Professor John Adams, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University
Research design
Questions, contribution, and scope in one place.
The three documents that together define the research: the questions it asks, the contribution it makes, and the bounds it holds.
01 · Questions
Primary question
What leadership behaviours and practices determine digital transformation success in UK-based organisations?
Leadership styles
What leadership behaviours have enabled UK-based senior executives to lead successful digital transformation initiatives in UK organisations?
Strategic decision-making
How do leadership decision-making processes influence the alignment between business strategy and technology integration?
Resistance and culture
What strategies do UK-based senior executives use to overcome resistance and foster cultural adaptability during digital transformation in UK organisations?
Leadership conditions
What contextual conditions and leadership practices support a transformation-ready environment in UK organisations?
02 · Contribution
Academic
Advances theory by contextualising leadership frameworks in the UK's digital transformation context.
Fills theoretical gaps around leadership styles and behaviours specific to UK-based digital transformation.
Provides empirical evidence on leadership's role in aligning the strategic and technological components of transformation.
Practical
Delivers an actionable assessment framework for evaluating leadership effectiveness in digital transformation.
Offers evidence-based recommendations for leadership development and organisational and technological change readiness.
Produces guidance applicable to senior executives, boards, and transformation programme leaders in UK organisations.
03 · Scope
In scope
Leadership behaviours in active or recent digital transformation roles
Strategic decision-making processes and their effect on transformation outcomes
Organisational culture, openness to change, and innovation as DX enablers
Resistance management strategies used by senior executives
The interplay between leadership style and technology-strategy alignment
Out of scope
Longitudinal tracking of the same organisations over time
Sector-specific deep dives; multiple sectors are included but not individually analysed
Systems-level integration of people, process, and technology beyond leadership behaviours
Digital skills and training as a primary focus
Technology performance or specific AI/platform capabilities
Ethical and social implications of digital transformation
Architecture of a thesis
Three instruments. One thesis.
Click a track to see how it operates inside the larger thesis. One track visible at a time.
The Transformation Generalist
Enterprise AI Perspectives
The gap between transformation effort, technology investment, and board-level outcomes, deconstructed in practitioner terms.
Visit The Transformation Generalist →Heriot-Watt University · Edinburgh Business School
DBA in Leadership and Transformation
Candidacy verifiable on the Heriot-Watt student profile.
View HWU profile →