The digital age has triggered the postal sector across the globe to enlarge its services well beyond the original service of the Designated Postal Operators (DPOs), which is the distribution of physical mail items. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) (2017) contends that although some DPOs in several countries across the world struggle with financial turmoil, there are DPOs that are effectually competing at an international level and are financially sustainable. There have been ubiquitous moves toward digital technologies throughout the world, which in turn has led to digitalization across industries, including the postal industry [1]. The UPU (2018) suggests that societal configuration is rapidly shifting, and the digital age has driven changes in the way that society consumes products and services. This shift has led to the progression of the client of the future with exceptional requirements and expectations that the postal sector ought to meet [2].

However, according to the UPU (2018), the majority of DPOs are poorly performing on the Integrated Index for Postal Development (2IPD). The UPU (2018) proposes that the measurement of multiple dynamics of postal development is a complex task and theorizes that, to overcome this challenge, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has been leveraging a wealth of vast data to appraise the performance of DPOs worldwide. One of the major outcomes of these efforts, it argues, was the creation of the Integrated Index for Postal Development or 2IPD [2]. According to the UPU (2018), the 2IPD measures the performance of Pos in the four vital dimensions of postal development, which are reliability, reach, relevance, and resilience [3].

The UPU (2019) explains the four dimensions as follows. (a) Reliability is a composite of excellence of service performance, including certainty of service across all classes of the postal delivery service, with a focus on national and incoming streams of the postal delivery process; it ultimately measures the level of postal operational efficacy. (b) Reach is a composite of global postal connectedness at a transnational level across all types of international postal delivery services; it ultimately measures the level of internationalization of postal services. (c) Relevance comprises the strength of demand for the full range of postal services in each postal segment, including mail, logistics, and financial services; it ultimately measures the level of attractiveness in all main markets. (d) Resilience comprises the capacity to innovate, deliver inclusive postal services, and integrate sustainable development targets in postal business models; it ultimately measures the level of flexibility of postal business models [4].

The UPU’s 2021 Integrated Index for Postal Development (2IPD) presents a complete view on current global postal development. Relying on a unique combination of postal big data and statistics made available by 172 countries, it paints a picture of an asymmetric state of postal development across the world. A clustering analysis reveals that a relatively large number of countries are classified in the low or lower-middle postal development groups, highlighting significant postal service development gaps between nations. The report highlights six top-performing countries on the 2IPD index and their respective scores: Switzerland (100), Germany (97), Austria (96.8), France (92.2), Japan (91.7), and China (91.1) [5]

The globe is changing at a fast pace and industries must keep abreast with changing technological landscapes, ever-changing customer requirements, and changing regulatory regimes. The postal sector is not immune to these dynamics and these changing landscapes have obligated posts around the globe to move beyond their traditional service of merely delivering mail and diversify into other avenues as the technologies of the 21st century continue to disrupt business models. Mutingi and Matope (2013) contend that the management of technology innovation and adoption is a complex undertaking as inhibitors and promoters dynamically interact, and, therefore, comprehending the interaction and effects of these dynamics is imperative [6].

The Universal Postal Union (UPU) (2018) argues that as society adopts the use of digital technologies at an exponential rate, clients are progressively expected to interrelate directly with the post through digital channels. Subsequently, 73% of posts have augmented their investment in digital postal services. Consequently, it is expected that the postal landscape will develop in several directions [3]. The UPU further proposes that posts are consequently at a crossroads; posts are required to adjust to remain relevant and gear up to compete with digitally native organizations in various markets [4]. To contest the market efficiently, posts need to accelerate the digitalization of their processes, products, and services. This means that DPOs that have not fully transformed their organizations from the perspective of digitalization are required to act with a sense of urgency or face the prospect of exclusion as providers of e-government, e-commerce, and e-financial services.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) (2016) argues that the upsurge in digital technology over the past three decades has offered DPOs a mixed bag of both threats and opportunities. Digital innovation by posts in industrialized nations was prompted by the mail decline instigated by substitution, a requirement for cost efficiency, and a requirement to improve the quality of service. It has also offered prospects to streamline the postal business operating model to ensure sustainability and diversification to create new revenue sources [7].

Figure 1 depicts the waves of digital innovation that the postal sector has undergone. The different waves can be described as follows. (a) Postal automation, in which, in the 1990s, during the booming mail volumes, the digital efforts of posts were largely fixated on streamlining and automating mail centers. Track and trace, then an innovative technology, was initially introduced for high-end express items and then extended through large initiatives such as the intelligent mail barcode. Additionally, machines that sort standard letters and non-standard letters together into “postman walk” sequences have been fitted in mail centers. (b) Revenue-generating services in which most DPOs expected to substitute lost mail revenue with an income stream from digital services. DPOs were expected to manage electronic communications and transactions between governments, organizations, and citizens. DPOs were expected to accomplish this role due to their physical proximity to citizens and the government, as well as their reputation for confidence, dependability, and safety. A few posts have attained this vision. (c) Core digital enhancement, whereby broadband penetration and Internet use amplified in the early 2000s, and the efforts to digitalize the postal value chain intensified. The goal was to enable customer access to DPOs and develop novel services at the juncture of physical and cyber mediums. (d) Digital transformation, which denotes updates in technology, progression, culture, and operating models. For example, connectivity, the cloud, and data analytics can permit rapid innovation, more informed data-driven decisions, and quicker execution.

The UPU (2018) further suggests that drivers of digital innovation and digital inclusivity are (a) the network, (b) employees, (c) laws and regulations, (d) financial capacity, (e) political commitment and public trust in the post, and (f) national policy alignment [3].

The UPU (2018) proposes that integrated networks are crucial to providing digital services and addresses three foremost challenges: (a) accessibility, (b) affordability, and (c) eligibility [3]. Only 55% of global households have Internet access, while Africa as a continent stands at 22%, which is the lowest [8]. The UPU (2019) contends that in many of these nations, many users access the Internet from the workplace, public schools, colleges and universities, or other communal public networks outside the home; it proposes that this is an area in which DPOs could play a significant role, due to their geographic reach in all regions of countries, including rural areas, which are often neglected. This role played by DPOs will enable the integration of citizens with the services of e-government, e-commerce, and e-finance. The UPU (2019) highlights the top five obstacles to movement into digital posts in the top six industrialized countries and Africa, which are depicted in Table 1, which points to severe constraints in Africa. These constraints can be characterized as a lack of resources in the form of specialized skills to develop e-services, poor IT infrastructure, budgetary constraints, and the slow adoption and diffusion of digital technologies, triggered by a poor digital culture, which is the factor that drives digital transformation [4].

Geographic Area	Barriers
Globally	Resource limitations
	The shift toward a digital culture
	Restrictions on IT capabilities
	Deficiency of adequate inner proficiency required to develop e-services
	Customs clearance is a significant barrier
Industrialised countries	The time it takes to shift towards a digital culture
	Overall client adoption of digital postal services is sluggish
Africa	Limited financial resources
	Poor IT infrastructure
	Lack of digital culture
	Deficiency of the specialists required to develop e-services
	Overall client adoption of digital postal services is sluggish

The UPU (2019) proposes that there are four fundamental, critical success factors for posts to advance digitalization, which are (a) complementing the DPOs with innovative digital services to expand their competitive advantage in terms of network size and density; (b) access to finances for digital initiatives; (c) partnerships, and (d) alignment with the national government’s digital strategies. The literature points out that the adoption of technology by organizations and DPOs is an intricate non-linear phenomenon with a variety of enablers and inhibitors. Adoption and diffusion enablers and inhibitors reveal that the dynamics interact in a complex and dynamic setting, which demands a holistic approach to managing the complex nature of the adoption and diffusion enablers and inhibitors that encompasses an examination of the interactions between adoption and diffusion barriers and drivers, as well as the management of the causal relationships between the drivers and barriers of the adoption and diffusion of technology/digitalization [4].