At the Crossroads between Digital Innovation and Digital Transformation

Abstract

The paper presents the report of a Professional Development Workshop (PDW) that addressed questions at the intersection of digital innovation and digital transformation at ICIS 2019 in Munich, Germany. The PDW was designed to share insights into (a) the current state of research on digital innovation, (b) the current state of research on digital transformation, and (c) the methodological and theoretical challenges in conducting research on digital innovation and/or digital transformation. Accordingly, the PDW featured three keynotes on digital innovation and digital transformation as a basis for interactive roundtable discussions where ongoing research projects presented by accepted author groups were discussed. Across the three keynotes and the roundtable discussions, some common patterns emerged. In particular, reoccurring themes included the challenge of balancing new and old elements of organization and technology in digital innovation and transformation as well as methodological challenges related to empirical research design and choice of theories. In this paper, we present a synthesis of ideas developed prior to, during, and after the PDW. This synthesis also results in a couple of suggestions for future research.