DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH: A TAXONOMY-BASED APPROACH TO STRUCTURE THE FIELD

Digital transformation becomes increasingly important to business research and practice. Transform-ing businesses poses various opportunities (e.g., creating novel business models) but, in contrast, con-stitutes numerous of challenges (e.g., changing processes and organizational structures). As Infor-mation Systems (IS) can support such transformation, it is assumed that it has great potential in digi-talization too. Thus, there is a rising amount of digital transformation-literature in IS. However, be-cause of the popularity as well as heterogeneous fields of application and types of research, a consoli-dated overview of digital transformation is necessary. Accordingly, this study derives a taxonomy of digital transformation to structure the field. Based on (1) a literature review and (2) a taxonomy-development approach, we developed a taxonomy that consists of research-relevant aspects (e.g., most studies use qualitative approaches; limited studies use design science research) as well as topic-related aspects (e.g., manufacturing and public sectors, enterprise architecture, knowledge and tech-nology are focused). Additionally, through (3) a cluster analysis, four areas could be identified: busi-ness strategies/models, working culture, technology, and skills/knowledge. Overall, by providing such a taxonomy we aim to contribute to a better characterization of digital transformation in IS research