TY - JOUR
T1 - Can traditional organizations be digitally transformed by themselves? The moderating role of absorptive capacity and strategic interdependence
AU - Siachou, Evangelia
AU - Vrontis, Demetris
AU - Trichina, Eleni
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Although digital transformation has significantly attracted scholarly attention beyond information systems, little is known whether traditional organizations can be digitally transformed alone. Knowledge of this process is important as traditional organizations risk failing to achieve digital transformation due to their lack of understanding about digitalization. This research proposes a conceptual framework, which approaches the digital transformation of traditional organizations as a coordinated sequence of specific relationships. The research propositions first outline the relationship between alliance knowledge and digital transformation as a necessary but not absolute condition for the digitalization of traditional conditions. Effectively, therefore, the constructs of absorptive capacity and strategic interdependence are considered to be boundary conditions to this relationship. Insights are also provided into traditional organizations’ levels of absorptive capacity (high vs. low) as well as into the levels of interdependence between them and their partners (symmetry vs. asymmetry), which both determine the outcomes of digital transformation. Concurring with these propositions, this framework advances our understanding of why traditional organizations struggle to be digitally transformed alone and provides implications for both theory and practice.
AB - Although digital transformation has significantly attracted scholarly attention beyond information systems, little is known whether traditional organizations can be digitally transformed alone. Knowledge of this process is important as traditional organizations risk failing to achieve digital transformation due to their lack of understanding about digitalization. This research proposes a conceptual framework, which approaches the digital transformation of traditional organizations as a coordinated sequence of specific relationships. The research propositions first outline the relationship between alliance knowledge and digital transformation as a necessary but not absolute condition for the digitalization of traditional conditions. Effectively, therefore, the constructs of absorptive capacity and strategic interdependence are considered to be boundary conditions to this relationship. Insights are also provided into traditional organizations’ levels of absorptive capacity (high vs. low) as well as into the levels of interdependence between them and their partners (symmetry vs. asymmetry), which both determine the outcomes of digital transformation. Concurring with these propositions, this framework advances our understanding of why traditional organizations struggle to be digitally transformed alone and provides implications for both theory and practice.
KW - Absorptive capacity
KW - Digital transformation
KW - Knowledge acquisition
KW - Strategic interdependence
KW - Traditional organizations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097076923&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.011
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097076923
SN - 0148-2963
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
ER -