Ambiguous, misinterpreted, but essential: conceptualization of the “digital mindset”

Abstract

The way people how act and think is mentioned frequently as one of the most essential factors to consider regarding successful digitalization. However, although we frequently talk about the ‘digital mindset’, the literature lacks a distinct, holistic and detailed definition of what this way of thinking is actually representing. Through an analysis and synthesis of the fields of psychology and digitalization literature, this conceptual paper pursues the goal to address the question of how a digital mindset can be conceptualized from a holistic perspective. As a re-sult, three main findings contribute to the research of the human side of digitalization and pave the way for future research avenues. First, a general definition of digital mindset is formed as thinking patterns, epitomized through cognitive processes, filters, and core convic-tions of humans constituted of cognitive mechanisms and knowledge structures, that affect and foster digital innovation and transformation to accomplish digitalization. Secondly, 19 concrete thinking patterns are derived that typify a digital mindset and can be differentiated between newly developed thinking patterns and remained or modified thinking patterns. Thirdly, the conceptualization reveals that the development of a (digital) mindset is based on knowledge as a prime component.