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In today’s business environment, advanced digital technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and big data analytics are widely utilized in business processes and have produced significant changes in economics and society, leading to the trend of digital transformation (DT) (Nambisan et al., 2017; Vial, 2019). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has further accelerated the development and progress of DT in several firms. The International Data Corporation (IDC) states that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of DT, suggesting that firms turn this crisis into an opportunity to expedite their transformation (IDC, 2021, 2022). Most researchers and practitioners acknowledge that DT can help firms develop their digital capability and enhance their competitive advantage in the contemporary world (Verhoef et al., 2021; Vial, 2019; Wessel et al., 2021).
Researchers are paying more attention to these developments as the ubiquity and visible effects of DT and resultant new digital business models become increasingly evident. Researchers from different business disciplines have focused on reviewing and defining the DT phenomenon (Verhoef et al., 2021; Vial, 2019; Wessel et al., 2021). Recent studies have found that DT reflects a firm’s ability to employ digital technologies to develop new business models and enhance business outcomes (Karagiannaki et al., 2017; Verhoef et al., 2021; Wessel et al., 2021; Westerman et al., 2014). DT, thus, is considered a powerful force that can fundamentally alter how firms conduct their business and the roles employees play in the work context (Wessel et al., 2021). In other words, DT can (re)define a firm’s value proposition and create a new organizational identity (Wessel et al., 2021).
However, business remaking during DT often leads to significant changes in the micro-level work and work practices in which the firm’s employees engage, rather than just changes in digital or information technology (IT) infrastructure (Tabrizi et al., 2019; Wessel et al., 2021). Therefore, the firm’s top management generally asks its employees to engage in new work practices to align with the new value proposition. If not attended to, this may derail the entire DT (Wessel et al., 2021). Previous studies have suggested that employees often refuse to adopt new work practices due to inertia (Polites & Karahanna, 2012). Furthermore, some employees may perceive DT as threatening their jobs and consciously or unconsciously resist the changes (Tabrizi et al., 2019). If employees lack the right mindset to change and current work practices are flawed, DT will significantly magnify these flaws (Tabrizi et al., 2019). Therefore, how employees react to such changes remains a critical issue and is key to successfully implementing DT.
However, prior studies on DT have primarily focused on defining and reviewing the phenomenon (Kraus et al., 2022; Verhoef et al., 2021; Vial, 2019; Wessel et al., 2021), or on exploring the determinants of DT from the firm perspective (Akhtar et al., 2022; AlNuaimi et al., 2022; Ciampi et al., 2022; Davison et al., 2023; El Sawy et al., 2020; Ghobakhloo & Iranmanesh, 2021; Porfírio et al., 2021; Singh & Hess, 2020; Ta & Lin, 2023). Few studies have examined the determinants driving employees to accept DT and new digitalized work practices (Vial, 2019; Wessel et al., 2021). This is a significant gap in the literature, as understanding these determinants is essential for ensuring the successful implementation of DT initiatives. Thus, this study addresses this gap by investigating the facilitators and hindrances employees face during DT implementation. We adopt a dilemmatic dual-factor perspective (Turel, 2015), considering both the outer/explicit and inner/tacit influences on employees’ perceptions of DT. We argue that these dual factors can push and pull employees towards or away from DT and that the study of these factors is essential for driving employees to adopt DT.