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Undoubtedly, digital transformation is permeating all domains of business and society. We envisage this volume as an opportunity to explore how manifestations of digital transformation require rethinking of our understanding and theorization of institutional processes. To achieve this goal, a collaborative forum of organization and management theory scholars and information systems researchers was developed to enrich and advance institutional theory approaches in understanding digital transformation. This volume’s contributions advance the three institutional perspectives. The first perspective, institutional logics, technological affordances and digital transformation, seeks to deepen our understanding of the pervasive and increasingly important relationship between technology and institutions. The second perspective, digital transformation, professional projects and new institutional agents, explores how existing professions respond to the introduction of digital technologies as well as the emergence of new professional projects and institutional agents in the wake of digital transformation. The third perspective, institutional infrastructure, field governance and digital transformation, inquires how new digital organizational forms, such as platforms, affect institutional fields, their infrastructure and thus their governance. For each of these perspectives, we outline an agenda for future research, complemented by a brief discussion of new research frontiers (i.e., digital work and sites of technological (re-)production; artificial intelligence (AI) and actorhood; digital transformation and grand challenges) and methodological reflections.

Digital transformations represent an increasingly salient empirical phenomena for institutionalists studying the processes by which institutions evolve, erode, or otherwise change. Yet, there have been few meaningful attempts to engage with insights from the information systems (IS) literature, despite digital innovation and diffusion falling squarely within its domain. This essay makes an initial attempt at integration by offering a two-by-two framework which crosses salient theoretical categories within the IS and institutional literatures. From the former, we draw on concepts of system acceptance and resistance, and from the latter, we draw on concepts of institutional maintenance and change. Each quadrant in our framework represents user responses happening because of, in reaction to, or toward various institutional dynamics. We illustrate each quadrant with data collected as part of a study of digital transformation in the field of public healthcare in Australia. We use our illustrative case to open up research questions which researchers might use to frame their own studies of digital transformations as a form of institutional change. We conclude with a discussion of what other theoretical advances or insights might be yielded from greater collaboration between institutionalists and IS scholars. This essay contributes to the nascent study of digital transformations as a form of institutional change through examining how complementary concepts of the IS and institutional literatures might be used simultaneously to understand the intersection of digital innovation and diffusion and the institutional arrangements governing the fields which they change.

Government initiatives to improve construction have increasingly become more focused on introducing a repertoire of technologies to transform the sector. In the literature on construction industry transformation through policy-backed initiatives, how firms will respond to the demands to adopt and use innovative technologies and approaches is taken for granted, and there is scarcely any attention given to the institutional implications of transformation agenda. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these gaps and offer directions for future research.

Following a synthesis of literature on the UK’s industry transformation agenda, the authors use the concepts of institutional logics, arrangements, complexity and strategic responses to suggest seven research questions that are at the nexus of policy-backed transformation and institutional theory.

In this paper, the authors argue that increasing demands for the adoption and use of digital technologies, platforms, manufacturing approaches and other “industry-4.0”-related technologies will reconfigure existing logics and arrangements in the construction industry, creating a problem of institutional complexity for general contracting firms in particular.

The questions are relevant for our understanding of the nature of institutional complexities, change, strategic firm responses, field-level dynamics and implications for the construction industry in relation to the transformation agenda. This paper is positioned to spur future research towards exploring the consequences of industry transformation through the lens of institutional theory.

The paper aims to explore an affirmative, discursive perspective for its potential to expand the current understanding of processes of institutional transformation.

First the notion of institutional transformation is discussed and the “discursive model of institutionalization” as developed by Phillips et al. is described. Then the concept of “positive textual deviance” is introduced and defined. The discursive model is read to explore possibilities for institutional transformation through instances of positive textual deviance.

The insertion of the concept of positive textual deviance into the discursive model of institutionalization reveals openings for transformation which are captured in propositions that address the agency of texts and their authors in the creation of desired change.

The paper is unique in its synthesis of three distinct theoretical perspectives – institutional, discursive, and affirmative – in the definition and application of positive textual deviance. Its affirmative, constructionist stance goes beyond a critical deconstruction of taken for granted practice by proposing a hopeful, emancipatory approach that enables institutional actors to become agents of change.

Institutional theory is inspired by the problem of how different organizations operating in different environment have similar structures. The similarity is catalyzed by isomorphic forces, active within a given organizational field. Despite the force of isomorphic process, there is emergence of new organizations in through institutional entrepreneurs. The emergence of NBFCs through transformation of NGOs within the given context of Indian microfinance sector creates a space for examining the institutional entrepreneurship. The paper studies the institutional entrepreneurs of Indian microfinance, and attempts to make some proposition on institutional entrepreneurship.

It brings out the commonalities among the institutional entrepreneurs, and how they have rationalized their actions within the given context. The paper aims to extend the current understanding of institutional entrepreneurship to the emerging field of Indian microfinance.

The institutional entrepreneurs were at the periphery of not‐for‐profit sector before transformation. The leaderships of institutional entrepreneurship are well‐networked, and have better access to resources. The institutional entrepreneurs have rationalized their action, by aligning their interest with that of other influential stakeholders. The new form is legitimized through patronizing practices like credit rating by professional agencies etc.

The study is based on secondary literature and the studies on all the selected organizations are not necessarily value‐neutral, and hence there are possibilities of interpreting the process of institutional entrepreneurship in an inadequate way.

There are very few works on microfinance from the institutional theory's perspective, and this may be a fresh attempt to look at the process of transformation of NGO‐MFIs from the lenses of institutional entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to gauge the knowledge of the university leaders at the Durban University of Technology on transformation.

This study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided by a structured survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with the university leaders. The questionnaires generated the reliability coefficient α of 0.947, indicating a high degree of acceptance and consistency of the results.

The study findings reveal the highest percentage of 70 per cent regarding the belief that transformation refers to restructuring the institution more than commonly anticipated variables such as race (56 per cent) and redressing the past injustices (59 per cent).

The limitation of the study was the scarcity of published material on the sub-dimensions of the study of transformation (transformation as referring to attracting qualified employees). Another limitation which was observed included the paucity of data regarding discipline and knowledge of transformation variables.

This study suggests transformation in higher education institutions is defined through internal (operational and core) and external factors with a direct influence.

This paper could potentially enrich the meaning of transformation, derived from the context and experience of South Africa.

Given widespread digital transformations in all sorts of organizations, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the role of digital technologies in institutional change. In this essay, we characterize existing scholarship in terms of whether it emphasizes how digital technologies are either “triggers” or “carriers” of institutional change. As triggers, digital technologies serve as catalysts that afford novel structuring as they are enacted in practice. As carriers, digital technologies can shape those practices in ways that are consistent with the structuring of other fields. We propose a view of institutionally embedded affordances, where digital technologies are both triggers and carriers that afford institutional change. We conclude with a reflection on how digital technologies are implicated in the convergence of previously distinct industrial fields.

Purpose – This chapter draws on the previous chapters and institutional case studies to identify and discuss the necessary conditions and facilitating factors which contribute to institutional transformation to engage a diverse student body.

Methodology /approach – This chapter is based on thematic analysis of the previous chapters and institutional case studies. It utilises national contextual information, details of changes undertaken and reflections on the process of change. The key ideas are illustrated by quotes from the case studies.

Findings – The following necessary conditions and facilitative factors are identified and discussed:i.Commitment to a transformational approachii.Sharing understanding and meaningiii.Institutional strategy for change: senior leadership, policy alignment, creating a facilitating infrastructure across the student lifecycle and co-ordinating changeiv.Engaging staff and creating an inclusive culturev.Developing students' capacity to engagevi.Taking an evidence-informed approachvii.Linking change to other institutional priorities and developmentsviii.An enabling policy and funding context

Research limitations – It is based on the chapters and case studies presented in this book rather than a wider analysis.

Practical implications – This chapter offers institutions insight into the conditions and factors that enable and smooth institutional transformation.

Social implications – This chapter is designed to support the promotion of social justice in higher education.

Originality/value – This chapter draws on international research and institutional examples and identifies common conditions and factors which contribute to managing change to engage a diverse student body. Its value is practical insights into change from an international perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the perspective provided by stage models and examine the wider contexts in which government service transformation occurs. Traditional stage models of e-government have been criticised as being too narrowly focussed suggesting that government services are transformed by information and communications technology (ICT) in a linear manner.

Government service transformation involves the interplay of a multitude of social and technical factors over time. We propose that an appreciation of the wider institutional, political and economic contexts is necessary and develop a framework of government service transformation in terms of the locus of context and focus of the change initiative. This framework is illustrated with reference to a case study of the transformation of the building approvals process in Singapore over two decades.

Application of the framework to the case study illustrates that government service transformation is not a linear progression and is influenced by decisions and factors related to both inner and outer contexts.

While bringing institutional theory to extend analyses of service transformation, the reconstruction of events in the case study presented does not provide a rich enough data set for a full analysis of the institutional forces at play.

Managers of e-government initiatives can use the dimensions of the framework to assess their progress, as new technologies emerge and policy priorities change.

The framework presented in the paper provides a complement to existing models for examining e-government transformation and brings a theoretically based perspective to government service transformation which is lacking in existing stage models.

The purpose of this conceptual chapter is to critically review the efficacy of diversity management in institutions of higher education with the intention of highlighting context-specific challenges in South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

Diversity is conceptualized with the assumption that equity and redress should form part of institutional practices for managing and integrating diverse workforce in HEIs. Because HEIs are tasked to reduce inequalities and exclusions and to ensure integration through redress at all levels, the argument in this chapter is that diversity and social inclusion go hand in hand and that discrimination of people in whatever form should be eliminated.

Findings reveal that diverse learning environments in HEIs help sharpen critical thinking and analytical skills and prepare institutional members to succeed in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

The challenge with diversity management, however, is in implementing diversity management in a practical HEI environment.

Implications are that managers should empower diverse institutional members with the ability to accommodate ethnic and cultural diversity, to succeed in maintaining institutional unity.

The study is significant for ensuring effective management of diversity and institutional workforce integration.

The chapter informs policy choices for the day-to-day management of diversity.