Disentangling the Concept and Role of Continuous Change for IS Research – A Systematic Literature Review

Silvana Hinsen, Information Systems and Strategic IT Management
Jan Jöhnk, Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer FIT
Nils Urbach, University of Bayreuth

Description

To ensure their business success in the digital age, organizations must continuously adapt to an increasingly hypercompetitive environment. Although the topic of continuous change has been addressed by previous research, we perceive a lack of attention on continuous change as an appropriate organizational change approach to tackle the challenges of digital business in the IS domain. Thus, our research goal is to analyze what IS research can learn from extant literature on continuous organizational change in today’s business environments. By carrying out a systematic literature review and analyzing 34 relevant papers, we identify and describe five major research streams which explore continuous change from different perspectives. Furthermore, we discuss links to well-known theoretical concepts to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange and we present a research agenda to transfer the identified results into the IS domain. Finally, we provide organizations with guidance to manage the challenges of digital business.

 

Disentangling the Concept and Role of Continuous Change for IS Research – A Systematic Literature Review

To ensure their business success in the digital age, organizations must continuously adapt to an increasingly hypercompetitive environment. Although the topic of continuous change has been addressed by previous research, we perceive a lack of attention on continuous change as an appropriate organizational change approach to tackle the challenges of digital business in the IS domain. Thus, our research goal is to analyze what IS research can learn from extant literature on continuous organizational change in today’s business environments. By carrying out a systematic literature review and analyzing 34 relevant papers, we identify and describe five major research streams which explore continuous change from different perspectives. Furthermore, we discuss links to well-known theoretical concepts to stimulate interdisciplinary exchange and we present a research agenda to transfer the identified results into the IS domain. Finally, we provide organizations with guidance to manage the challenges of digital business.