Digital Skills Mobilization within Incumbent Organizations: The Agentic Role of Digital Champions
通过对一家公用事业公司的深度案例研究，揭示了在位企业如何通过挖掘休眠数字技能、唤醒数字技能持有者和传播数字技能三个机制来动员数字技能，并发现数字冠军在其中发挥关键能动作用。
Abstract In a world increasingly influenced by digital technologies, incumbent organizations are urged to equip their employees with digital skills to unlock the transformative power of digitalization for their strategy and business model. Yet, extant research lacks guidance on how to mobilize and implement effective initiatives to develop digital skills in incumbents. Therefore, through an in‐depth case study of a utility company, this paper explores how an incumbent can mobilize its digital skills to embrace digital transformation. Based on the process perspective of resource mobilization, we shed light on the mechanisms for searching, accessing and transferring digital skills, namely: (i) unearthing dormant digital skills ; (ii) awakening digital skill‐holders ; and (iii) disseminating digital skills . In the investigation of these mechanisms, we uncover the agentic role of digital champions, who become an organizational capability for mobilizing digital skills in incumbents. We also document how digital technologies, as operant resources, can transversally support all stages of the mobilization of digital skills aimed at developing and leveraging digital skills in incumbents. In doing so, we explore the role of digitalization, both as the content of resource mobilization, in terms of digital skills, and as the means through which mobilization is enacted, in terms of digital assets and initiatives. Based on the findings of this study, we contribute to knowledge at the interface between digitalization and resource mobilization in the broader context of digital transformation.