Source: Bradley Pisney (unsplash.com)

What was the motivation of the research team?

In their individual roles and from their different perspectives all members of our research team are currently investigating digitalization and digital transformation activities of incumbent firms. We obviously share this curiosity on how digital technologies can change the existing business landscape with many other business researchers. Much has recently been written about the phases, the processes and business models of digitalization activities. This is great and has substantially improved our knowledge about how digital transformation could be done. However, when looking at recent reports from consultancies combined with our own experiences talking to the decision makers in many firms, shows that successful digital transformation depends on the individuals who either hinder or drive digital change. Thus one soon realizes that one of the main reasons for heterogeneity in firms’ response to digitalization may be found in different perceptions of digital technologies by individual corporate actors. This observation has fueled our motivation to investigate technological frames of corporate actors in the digital age.

Where is our study positioned?

It is assumed, that to develop suitable strategies that facilitate technology-induced organizational change, corporate actors need to interpret, assess, and select appropriate digital technologies. To focus their attention on the relevant features of digital technologies, interpret their usefulness, and take action, actors rely on their simplified cognitive schemata. These so called technological frames describe the assumptions, expectations, and knowledge that an actor uses to understand a technology’s application and consequences in a particular context. Although research has generally agreed on the central role of technological frames in the implementation of new technologies, it fails to provide a comprehensive understanding of the variety of technological frames on the individual level and the consequences of heterogeneous technological frames on the collective level. In our research study, we aim to facilitate a better understanding and provide a foundation for a better measurement of technological frames for future empirical studies. More specifically, we explore the theoretical underpinnings of the variety in technological frames on an individual level and develop a measurement instrument as foundation for further research.

What are the main reasons to read the study?

Our essay provides interesting insights for all those who would like to better understand the role of technological frames in a digital transformation process and who would like to pursue their own empirical research on the role of technological frames in firms’ digital transformation processes. You will learn about two main insights:

1. What are the microfoundations of technological frames? What antecedences drive the emergence and explain the heterogeneity of individual technological frames?
2. How can technological frames be measured based in a valid and reliable way by surveying corporate actors?

We hope that our study will facilitate a more intense discussion about the role of individual technology perceptions in strategy making and organizational transformation in the digital age. Particularly, we are looking forward to seeing more quantitative empirical research that builds on the measurement instrument developed here.

The full article is available at the website of Journal of Management Studies and can be accessed here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joms.12720