Clarifying the Notion of Digital Transformation in IS Literature : A Comparison of Organizational Change Philosophies

The widespread availability of digital technologies led to a disruption of well-established business models in many industries. Digital Transformation (DT) is organizations' strategy to prevent this disruption. However, in IS literature there exists no common understanding about what is exactly meant by DT, ranging from the transformation of whole industries to single processes of digitization. Hence, this conceptual paper aims to address this gap by comparing DT to prior organizational change philosophies. Based on the comparison, we clarify the notion of DT in IS literature by providing a definition and constructs that differentiate the content, order, and improvement goals of DT from other organizational change philosophies. Scholars and practitioners may find this conceptualization helpful to understand the different facets of DT. We hope that our suggestion for the use of consistent terminology will be embraced and will help to consolidate this research area and move it forward