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This paper focuses on the impact of digitalization in the legal industry. The legal industry is highly institutionalized and has for long been unaffected by external changes. This has enabled the development of a strong institutional logic that has dictated homogeneous practices in law firms and limited their room for innovation. However, this seems about to change. Through a qualitative case study of the Swedish legal industry, this paper shows that new practices, enabled by digitalization, challenges common practices and puts the dominant logic under threat. By applying an institutional logics perspective to recent changes, this paper contrasts the enactment of the dominant logic with innovative practices and shows that digitalization has created institutional complexity, where digital pioneers respond to digital opportunities differently than incumbents. This paper also explains why and highlights the emergence of hybrid firms that successfully combine elements of the dominant logic with innovation. Consequently, this paper contributes to our understanding of digital innovation and digital transformation within highly institutional industries.

As COVID-19 affects populations across the globe, the measures to prevent its spread are increasingly affecting our economies. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods and regulations for social distancing and quarantine affect both the consumption and production of goods and services. In this article, we examine the impact of COVID-19 on professional advisory service providers assisting their clients to excel. We find that COVID-19 has rapidly broken down several previous barriers to digital transformation and has caused a rapid increase in the adoption of digital technology among professional advisory firms. We conclude that although there might be a corona bump of rapid digital implementation, a new normal has been established, which changes the operational context and implies that the rate of digital trajectory will be steeper, and the pace will be faster, than has been earlier anticipated. This implies that professional advisors will become better suited to advise on the increasingly complex digital context of their clients.

Purpose The effects of the spread of COVID-19 across the world are devastating, both from a health and an economic perspective. However, we also see encouraging examples of collaborative and innovative initiatives, in society and in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to focus on initiatives related to digital business model innovation. The authors explore how organizational characteristics provide a variety of opportunities for digital responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the potential consequences for the speed of digital transformation in organizations and society. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors analyze how organizations attempt to mitigate the negative effects of fighting COVID-19 using digital business model responses. The authors draw on a qualitative study where they have collected data from the retail and service industries. They have analyzed the data in relation to theory to better understand this ongoing phenomenon. Findings The authors have identified four categories of organizations (crisispreneurs, accelerators, endurers and thrivers). Each category faces different challenges and shows a different intensity in their digital transformation. The authors propose that the rapid turn toward digital business models will have enduring effects, as organizations have gained transformational capabilities that will remain, and that the digital trajectory has, as a result, changed forever. Originality/value The findings in this paper point toward new challenges for leaders and policymakers in terms of how to support initiatives and meet the needs of different categories of organizations while simultaneously being conscious of the potential societal effects of this rapid digital shift. The authors hope that this paper can be of value for managing this shock and learning how to adapt for the future taking certain aspects of current business models as the departure point.