The Fuzzy Front-End of Digital Transformation: Three Perspectives on the Formulation of Organizational Change Strategies

The fuzzy front-end describes the random and generally vague initial stages of an innovation project. Since digital transformation can be seen as innovation process of an organization, improving the initial stages can be beneficial for the entire process. This literature review takes the unique perspective of the fuzzy front-end within digital transformation. Characteristics of and challenges in formulating of organizational change strategies are reviewed in three different domains: information systems (IS), management & strategy (MS), and organization science (OS). The results show that within IS, the role of information systems has changed from a process-oriented to a more strategic role and digital technology skills become more important during strategy formulation. Within MS, there is a strong focus on interpreting external signals and reacting to them. In OS, the formulation of a change strategy is seen as a collaborative process between leadership and the workforce. The results from this review should encourage the research on digital transformation to focus to a greater extent on the initial phase of strategy formulation.