The behavior of managers handling digital business transformations: Theoretical issues and empirical evidence from firms in the manufacturing industry

Purpose – Organizational culture plays a central role when dealing with the issue of digital business transformation (DBT). Managers handling a DBT and involved in digital strateging are expected to modify the organizational culture of firms to make it more fitting with the paradigm of digital economy and having more chance of success. Thus, it is noteworthy to inspect the role they can have over DBTs. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavior that managers assume when they approach DBTs by investigating whether they act as mentors/facilitators or entrepreneurs/innovators, as coordinators or decision makers. Design/methodology/approach – To achieve the above purpose, ten case studies about manufacturing firms have been selected. Case studies, retrieved by the Digital Innovation Observatories of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano, are studied and analyzed by means of a qualitative content analysis on textual data. This allows getting specific insights into organizational culture before and after DBT and about the role played by managers. Findings – Achieved results disclose that managers need to modify the organizational culture of their firms to handle a successful DBT. However, firms can assume different organizational culture and thus the role assumed by managers handling a DBT can change as well. Originality/value – To the authors knowledge, this paper is among the first that aim to investigate the role that mangers assume when handling DBTs. In particular, originality lies in the fact that assumed roles are rebuilt in reference to their ability to modify organizational culture.