Paper Number
ICIS2025-1557
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Recent studies have highlighted the importance of identifying and managing paradoxes in digital transformation (DT), yet they provide limited insights into this area. In particular, they tend to overlook the tensions that arise among intra-organizational units and the evolution of paradoxes throughout the stages of DT. In this study, we adopt a process view to examine how the paradoxes between the digital and business units within an organization unfold at different DT stages, and how the organization addresses these paradoxes. Through an in-depth case study of Geely Auto, we identify that intra-organizational units exhibit distinct value proposition paradoxes across the initiation, consolidation, and expansion stages of DT: collective versus individual, functional versus contextual, and long-term versus short-term. To address the tensions at each stage, digital value standardization, structural reconstruction, and digital culture have played their respective roles in succession. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of DT paradoxes.
Recommended Citation
Bai, Shuyuan; Ng, Evelyn; Tan, Barney; Sun, Yuan; and Chen, Xi, "The Paradoxes of Digital Transformation: A Case Study of Geely Auto" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 9.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/digitstrategy/digitstrategy/9
The Paradoxes of Digital Transformation: A Case Study of Geely Auto
Recent studies have highlighted the importance of identifying and managing paradoxes in digital transformation (DT), yet they provide limited insights into this area. In particular, they tend to overlook the tensions that arise among intra-organizational units and the evolution of paradoxes throughout the stages of DT. In this study, we adopt a process view to examine how the paradoxes between the digital and business units within an organization unfold at different DT stages, and how the organization addresses these paradoxes. Through an in-depth case study of Geely Auto, we identify that intra-organizational units exhibit distinct value proposition paradoxes across the initiation, consolidation, and expansion stages of DT: collective versus individual, functional versus contextual, and long-term versus short-term. To address the tensions at each stage, digital value standardization, structural reconstruction, and digital culture have played their respective roles in succession. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of DT paradoxes.
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