How Culture and Technology Go Hand-In-Hand in Digital Transformations into an Ecosystem Business

The purpose of this paper is to improve current knowledge on culture’s role in a firm’s digital transformation, as well as to identify and add a cultural ‘digital maturity’ lens to an already well-known digital transformation framework. Literature reviews as well as a qualitative study of GE Appliances (GEA) and its transformation into an ecosystem business were conducted between 2021 and January 2023. Findings from interviews were synthesized into a rich thick description of GEA’s transformation between the years 2016 and 2022. GEA was then analyzed by using both an integrated framework on IT-enabled business transformation, as well as using a cultural ‘digital maturity lens’. Early generation of digital transformation frameworks from the field of information systems rarely take into consideration a firm’s culture. More recent research, however, emphasize the role of culture and key cultural attributes, favorable for a digital transformation. By using an actionable established framework, together with a ‘digital maturity’ lens the GEA transformation into an ecosystem business was analyzed and better understood. This paper contributes to a further understanding of the interdependency between a change in culture and digital technologies to succeed in any digital transformation.