Digital Mindsets: Recognizing and Leveraging Individual Beliefs for Digital Transformation

Abstract

Employees’ beliefs about technological change, their “digital mindsets,” are likely to influence their engagement in, or withdrawal from, their company’s digital transformation initiatives. Employees’ beliefs regarding the malleability of personal ability (fixed/growth mindset) and their beliefs about the availability of situational resources (zero-sum/expandable-sum mindset) influence the extent to which they see new technologies as providing opportunities for professional growth or as encroaching on their ability to display competency. This article examines the implications for managing digital transformation.

Digital Transformation and Innovation Management: A Synthesis of Existing Research and an Agenda for Future Studies

“…When it comes to the content of this cluster, we can observe that the concept of digital transformation (Berger et al, 2019; Nambisan et al, 2019; Verhoef et al, 2021) is usually adopted in relationship with a wide range of recently introduced enabling technologies such as AI, industrial internet of things, big data, and smart products (see Blackburn et al, 2017; Chandy et al, 2017; Farrington & Alizadeh, 2017; Fossen & Sorgner, 2019; Iansiti & Lakhani, 2014; Mariani & Fosso Wamba, 2020; Raff et al, 2020; Ransbotham et al, 2016; Sjödin et al, 2020; Verganti et al, 2020). Moreover, the studies included in the cluster offer evidence on service innovation (Sjödin et al, 2020), product‐service systems (Lerch & Gotsch, 2015), organizational practices and routines (Jackson, 2019), change management (Mugge et al, 2020; Solberg et al, 2020), innovation processes (Guenzi & Habel, 2020; Klein et al, 2020), competitive dynamics (Ferreira et al, 2019; Porter & Heppelmann, 2014, 2015), organizational design and structure (Kretschmer & Khashabi, 2020).…”

“…The brown cluster includes studies focused on the central topic of innovation management (Gobble, 2018). These papers provide evidence about the impact of technological change (Wang et al, 2020) on employment, job creation, and disruptive innovation (Balsmeier & Woerter, 2019), adaptations of leadership styles, cognitive framings, and employee beliefs in accepting innovative technologies (Solberg et al, 2020).…”

Come on, network! Empowering employees to use Web-based interorganizational learning platforms in research and development

“…the Corona crisis). Solberg et al (2020) showed that employees' digital mindsets may vary over time. The disruptive power of external shocks may have a pronounced effect on this foundation of innovation acceptance.…”

“…Consequently, IOL technologies that promote an ambidextrous working culture are crucial for organizational success. However, the implementation of IOL technologies such as Web-based IOL platform can only be successful when employees are willing to accept and use the technology (Mirow et al, 2008;Solberg et al, 2020).…”

“…In the short term, the employees' acceptance of Web-based IOL platforms is crucial for the number of users and their frequency of use. In the medium term, the acceptance and usage foster employees' digital mindsets (Solberg et al, 2020), and in the long term, it encourages organizations to become ambidextrous, which in turn may positively impact their innovation capacity, the efficiency of their workflows and their performance (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2013;Brix, 2019aBrix, , 2019b.…”