Mobilising new frontiers in digital transformation research: A problematization review

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.