SUSTAINABLE DISRUPTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE: A CASE STUDY ON CHANGING EPISTEMIC STANCES IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract

Web 2.0 and 3.0 digital technologies have been inducing a profound transformation of the structures and processes of companies. There is a rich literature on how digital transformation happens in organizations, however, limited insight into the role of knowledge has been provided, particularly about how firms deal with the conundrum that during digital transformation they are likely to disrupt the foundational knowledge on which their structure and processes are built. How do firms realize digital transformation when this very process disrupts the foundational knowledge upon which their structures and processes rely? In an extensive single case study of a large regional Chinese Media Company, we empirically explore the changing patterns of knowledge, namely the organizational epistemic stances, that were continuously disrupted by the process of digital transformation. We identify a dynamic process including four phases of epistemic stance that the firm went through during the digital transformation. Through adopting a knowledge-based perspective, this study extends the understanding of how digital transformation changes organizations’ knowledge-generating inherently and how organizations deal with the changes.