The Market-Recognition Gap in Digital Transformation: A Conceptual and Diagnostic Framework for Technological Capability Recognition
Digital transformation can alter what a firm is capable of faster than customers, partners and other external audiences revise their understanding of the firm. This conceptual paper calls that difference the market-recognition gap. The paper integrates research on digital transformation, signalling theory, market orientation and dynamic capabilities with bounded practitioner observations from B2B technology branding. It argues that strategic positioning can function as a translation layer between operational capability and market recognition when it makes consequential differences easier to understand and connects claims to verifiable evidence.
The paper develops a four-part model of recognition failure: capability change, category inertia, signal ambiguity and proof separation. It then proposes three research propositions concerning the relationship between capability change, signal specificity and external recognition. The contribution is intentionally conceptual. It does not test causal effects or generalize from proprietary client data. Instead, it offers a vocabulary and research agenda for examining why technological transformation may remain commercially under-recognized even when operational capability has materially changed. The paper further introduces a diagnostic framework and a two-dimensional market-recognition matrix to distinguish under-recognized capability change from broader visibility problems. These tools are proposed for structured managerial assessment and future empirical validation, not as validated diagnostic measures.
Copyright: © The Author(s) 2026. This article is distributed under the terms and conditions of the license Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
| Article info: Received: 2 May, 2026; Revised: 5 June, 2026; Accepted: 29 June, 2026; Published: 9 July, 2026.
Obradović, V. (2026). The Market-Recognition Gap in Digital Transformation: A Conceptual and Diagnostic Framework for Technological Capability Recognition. Journal of Emerging Technologies for Society, Volume I, 1(1), 67-78. https://doi.org/10.57017/jets.v1.iss1.04
CRediT Authorship Contribution Statement: Obradović, V.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - Original Draft, Writing - Review and Editing.
Acknowledgments/Funding: The author received no external funding for this research and has no acknowledgments to declare.
Conflict of Interest Statement: The author is a branding practitioner and founder of a commercial design studio. This professional background informs the practitioner perspective described in the paper. No client or third party funded the manuscript.
Data Availability Statement: No new data were created or analysed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
Ethical Approval Statement: This study is theoretical and conceptual in nature and did not involve human participants, personal data, or animal subjects. Therefore, ethical approval was not required.
Use of AI Statement: During preparation of this manuscript, the author used OpenAI ChatGPT to support drafting, language structuring and editorial formatting. The author reviewed and edited the content, verified the cited literature, and takes full responsibility for the final manuscript.
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