Same but Different: Variations in Reactions to Digital Transformation Within an Organizational Field
Authors: Noesgaard, Mette Strange; Nielsen, Jeppe Agger; Jensen, Tina Blegind; Mathiassen, Lars
Journal: Journal of the Association for Information Systems (2023)
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00770
<jats:p>Researchers and practitioners are increasingly interested in understanding how organizations transform their value propositions and practices using digital technologies. While the extant literature offers important empirical and theoretical insights into digital transformation in individual organizations, we know little about how adopting organizations within an organizational field react differently over time to the same digital transformation initiative. This is unfortunate, as such insights could help scholars and managers understand option repertoires and constraints in handling digital transformation ideas that travel into organizations. Against this backdrop, we had access to a unique case over an eighteen-year period, which shows how organizations within the Danish home care field reacted differently to a nationwide digital transformation initiative on mobile technology use. To analyze this case, we applied virus theory as a promising perspective for examining how and why the same digital technology and transformation idea occasions different reactions in similar contexts. Our analysis highlights the emerging, fluctuating, and consequential nature of digital transfo…