Mobilising new frontiers in digital transformation research: A problematization review

Abstract

In this paper, we mobilise new frontiers in digital transformation (DT) research by deconstructing the literature's underlying assumptions and analysing their correspondence with current theory. To do so, we conduct a problematization review across the fields of IS, strategy and entrepreneurship, organisation theory and management studies, to capture the multidimensionality of DT research. Unlike systematic literature reviews commonly found in DT research, a problematization review critically questions how theoretical contributions have been constructed in past research to develop novel theoretical questions. Our findings offer three contributions. First, we uncover five research trajectories, each with its own in-house assumptions about the nature of digital technologies and how organisations, groups and individuals interact with those technologies and the data they generate. Second, we show how individual studies within the identified research trajectories position themselves against prior research, pointing at six distinct processes of constructing theoretical contributions. Finally, we mobilise new frontiers of research by questioning DT research field assumptions that cut across the five research trajectories. We conclude by discussing the theoretical implications of our problematization review for further DT research.