Unpacking the Difference Between Digital Transformation and IT-Enabled Organizational Transformation
Abstract
Although digital transformation offers a number of opportunities for today’s organizations, information systems scholars and practitioners struggle to grasp what digital transformation really is, particularly in terms of how it differs from the well-established concept of information technology (IT)-enabled organizational transformation. By integrating literature from organization science and information systems research with two longitudinal case studies—one on digital transformation, the other on IT-enabled organizational transformation—we develop an empirically grounded conceptualization that sets these two phenomena apart. We find that there are two distinctive differences: (1) digital transformation activities leverage digital technology in (re)defining an organization’s value proposition, while IT-enabled organizational transformation activities leverage digital technology in supporting the value proposition, and (2) digital transformation involves the emergence of a new organizational identity, whereas IT-enabled organizational transformation involves the enhancement of an existing organizational identity. We synthesize these arguments in a process model to distinguish the different types of transformations and propose directions for future research.
Recommended Citation
Wessel, Lauri; Baiyere, Abayomi; Ologeanu-Taddei, Roxana; Cha, Jonghyuk; and Blegind Jensen, Tina
(2021)
"Unpacking the Difference Between Digital Transformation and IT-Enabled Organizational Transformation,"
Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(1), .
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00655
Available at:
https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol22/iss1/6
DOI
10.17705/1jais.00655
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