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

What is it about?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of culture in digital transformations of firms, from local optimization, ecosystems, to business scope redefinition. It is also to develop an actionable framework integrating previous research from multiple disciplines, including information systems, management, and organization (incl. cultural studies). Multiple literature reviews and a qualitative study of GE Appliances (GEA) and its transformation into an ecosystem business were conducted. Findings from interviews were synthesized into a rich thick description of GEA’s transformation between the years 2016 and 2022. The GEA case was analyzed and discussed using several integrated frameworks based on previous research. Early generations of digital transformation frameworks, mainly from the field of information systems, 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, social, and macro. The paper contributes a new multi-disciplinary integrated framework for the digital transformation of large enterprises and a further understanding of the impact of culture in the transformation of the firm.

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