Navigating Strategic Dissonance in the Digital Transformation Era: a Systematic Literature Review
TL;DR
The results validate a Middle Range Theory (MRT) proposition confirming that the effectiveness of digital transformation in incumbent firms depends heavily on the integration of architectural agility, leader–follower identity flexibility through the Leader-Follower Trade (LFT) model, and co-creation strategy as a crucial mediator.
Abstract
Digital transformation has irreversibly shifted the global economic paradigm, forcing organizations to abandon traditional business models in order to survive. However, for incumbent firms, this transition often triggers a phenomenon of "Strategic Dissonance" — a critical divergence between top leadership's strategic intent and actual managerial action at the operational level. This systematic literature review aims to reconcile the disconnect between strategic management and digital operational reality through the synthesis of 17 core documents spanning the period 1990–2022. By applying the PRISMA 2020 protocol, this study identifies three central themes: (1) the mechanism for identifying strategic dissonance signals through Strategic Recognition capacity (strong consensus, 82%), (2) the phenomenon of Quasi-Chaos in the middle phase of the technology cycle (moderate consensus, 58%), and (3) the mediating role of co-creation in linking digital leadership with business model innovation (strong consensus, 76%). The results validate a Middle Range Theory (MRT) proposition confirming that the effectiveness of digital transformation in incumbent firms depends heavily on the integration of architectural agility, leader–follower identity flexibility through the Leader-Follower Trade (LFT) model, and co-creation strategy as a crucial mediator. The originality of this study lies in its multidisciplinary synthesis linking the management intuition of Strategic Dissonance (Burgelman & Grove, 1996) with the mathematical correction to the product life cycle (Phillips et al., 2016).