Conflicting Identities During Digital Transformation Efforts of an Incumbent Automotive Firm Research Paper

Most manufacturing firms that undergo digital transformation fail to seize the expected benefits. A key reason is that those firms fail to extend their identity of operational excellence with a digital service provider identity, leading to tensions at the interface-the product. Although research has addressed individual aspects of organizational identity, how organizational identity evolves in incumbent firms remains to be understood. In a case study with a leading automotive manufacturer, we show how two conflicting identities lead to paradoxical tensions and how separating them through a spinoff shifts these tensions. This study provides initial results on conflicting organizational identities during digital transformation.