A Process for Managing Digital Transformation: An Organizational Inertia Perspective

Abstract

Digital transformation is often described as organizational change that is simultaneously triggered and enabled by digital technologies. As with other types of organizational transformation, overcoming organizational inertia lies at the heart of digital transformation. However, our understanding of the specific processes employed by incumbent firms to overcome organizational inertia in digital transformation is currently limited. In this paper, we draw on the case study of AsiaBank, a large traditional bank in Asia, to explore the microfoundations of how incumbent firms tackle different types of inertia as they embark on a digital transformation journey. We identify four key digital transformation processes—i.e., embracing the consumerization of digital technologies, diffusing and appropriating digital business practices, enabling distributed organizing, and revamping IT architecture—that combine to reduce negative psychology, sociocognitive, sociotechnical, political, and economic inertia in digital transformation. Our findings expand the extant view on the role of agency in overcoming organizational inertia and contribute to the literature at the intersection of digital innovation and transformation.