Culture and technology in digital transformations: how large companies could renew and change into ecosystem businesses

Abstract

Purpose The purpose and theoretical contributions of this paper are to improve current knowledge on culture's role in firms' digital transformation, as well as to identify and add a cultural “digital maturity” lens to well-known, already actionable frameworks for the digital transformation of firms. Design/methodology/approach To increase current knowledge on culture's role in firms' digital transformation, as well as to identify and add a cultural “digital maturity” lens to well-known and actionable frameworks for the digital transformation of firms, a multi-step approach was chosen, including both literature reviews as well as a qualitative study of one company case. Findings Early generations of digital transformation frameworks, mainly from the field of information systems (IS), did not take into consideration firms' culture. More recent research in the fields of management and organization, however, emphasizes the role of culture and key cultural attributes favorable for a digital transformation. By integrating key findings on digital transformation from these research fields, a multi-disciplinary framework could be presented, allowing any organization to plan, organize and monitor a digital transformation from three essential lenses: technical (processes and actions for transforming), social (transformation of norms and behavior) and macro (transformation of the perception of the outside world). Research limitations/implications Only one case study was included in this study. The developed multi-disciplinary framework needs to be tested in more cases. Practical implications Practitioners can use the new integrated framework above for evaluating the conditions for, and the progression of a digital transformation, by using the developed framework and by applying the three lenses. Social implications Originality/value The paper contributes a new multi-disciplinary integrated framework for the digital transformation of enterprises and a further understanding of the impact of culture in the transformation of the firm.