Digital Transformation and AI: Logics, Tensions, and Emerging Perspectives

Schedule and location

Thursday August 13 – Friday August 14.

Turku School of Economics, Rehtorinpellonkatu 3, 20500 Turku.

13.8. 9–16:30 Lecture room LS01

14.8. 9–16:30 Lecture room LS01

Registration

Registration is open until August 6.

Speakers

Associate Professor & Distinguished Research Fellow of Digital Technology Abayomi Baiyere, Smith School of Business, Queen's University, Canada

Organizer

Assistant Professor Matti Minkkinen, University of Turku, Finland

Overview

This two-day doctoral seminar explores the intersection of digital transformation and artificial intelligence, examining how organizations navigate competing logics, temporal tensions, and strategic imperatives in an increasingly AI-driven landscape. The course combines lectures with interactive discussions and participant presentations.

What the seminar is about

The seminar asks one question from several angles. What logics has digital transformation installed in organizations and in our theories, and what does AI now do to them?

- Day 1 is designed to build that lens together, with short lectures and working segments that apply each idea to your own research setting.

- Day 2 belongs to you, with presentations of your research through the seminar’s lens and a closing that turns two days of material into research agendas you can act on.

Program

Day 1, Thursday 13 August: building the lens

Time	Session
9:00-9:30	Opening and mapping the room
9:30-10:05	Lecture 1: What digital transformation is (and is not)
10:05-10:25	Break
10:25-11:10	Exercise 1: Position your phenomenon
11:10-11:45	Lecture 2: Logics as a theoretical lens
11:45-12:45	Lunch
12:45-13:30	Exercise 2: Unpacking the logics
13:30-14:05	Lecture 3: Enter AI: strain, rewire, or more of the same?
14:05-14:50	Exercise 3: Tension mapping, AI meets your logics
14:50-15:10	Break
15:10-15:40	Lecture 4: Emerging perspectives
15:40-16:15	Exercise 4: From tension to research question
16:15-16:30	Day 2 setup

Day 2, Friday 14 August: your day

Time	Session
9:00-9:15	Framing: how the day works
9:15-10:30	Presentation round 1
10:30-10:50	Break
10:50-12:05	Presentation round 2
12:05-13:05	Lunch
13:05-14:15	Presentation round 3
14:15-14:35	Break
14:35-15:35	Closing A: mapping the open problems
15:35-16:15	Closing B: from seminar to thesis and publication
16:15-16:30	Wrap and farewells

Pre-course assignment

Prepare before Day 1

Read the five required articles (in Reading Guide, sent by email). The guided path takes about five hours of reading, six to seven with notes. The Reading Guide gives the order, the time per piece, and one question to read with for each.
Write your positioning piece, 1-2 pages (roughly 600-900 words), and email it to a.baiyere@queensu.ca by Wednesday 12 August, 16:00 (EEST). Full instructions are in the Positioning Piece Instructions.
Prepare to speak for roughly 5-10 minutes on Day 2 about your own research through the seminar’s lens: your position, one tension, and one research question. The exact format and timing are confirmed by email once registration closes.
Bring your reading notes and a printed or editable copy of your positioning piece. A laptop is optional; all working materials are provided.

Readings

See the Reading Guide sent by email for the full instructions.

The five required readings:
Five required readings are the working material of both seminar days, and the seminar assumes you have read them.

#	Reading	How to read it	Time
R1	Wessel et al. (2021), JAIS	Watch the authors’ short companion video first, then focus your reading on the introduction, the distinction framework, the empirical illustrations, and discussion.	about 60 min
R2	Baiyere, Salmela and Tapanainen (2020), EJIS	Read in full, requires closest attention to the move from existing to proposed logics.	about 80 min
R3	Baiyere et al. (2026), JSIS	A short viewpoint, read in full.	about 30 min
R4	Raisch and Krakowski (2021), AMR	Read in full. This is the tension paper the Day 1 tension-mapping exercise works with.	about 75 min
R5	Berente et al. (2021), MISQ	Read in full; it is short.	about 60 min

R1. Unpacking the difference between digital transformation and IT-enabled organizational transformation
Wessel, L., Baiyere, A., Ologeanu-Taddei, R., Cha, J., & Blegind Jensen, T. (2021). Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(1), 102-129. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol22/iss1/6/

R2. Digital transformation and the new logics of business process management
Baiyere, A., Salmela, H., & Tapanainen, T. (2020). European Journal of Information Systems, 29(3), 238-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1718007

R3. Digital transformation as future-ready strategizing: Beyond the destination view
Baiyere, A., Constantiou, I., Indulska, M., & Tuunainen, V. K. (2026). The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 35(2), 101975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2026.101975

R4. Artificial intelligence and management: The automation-augmentation paradox
Raisch, S., & Krakowski, S. (2021). Academy of Management Review, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0072

R5. Managing artificial intelligence
Berente, N., Gu, B., Recker, J., & Santhanam, R. (2021). MIS Quarterly, 45(3), 1433-1450. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2021/16274

Optional readings below!
None of these is required. In each theme the first entry, in bold, is the pick for anyone who wants one more piece only.

Theme A: Delineating digital transformation

Markus, M. L., & Rowe, F. (2023). The digital transformation conundrum: Labels, definitions, phenomena, and theories. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(2). https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol24/iss2/10/
Wessel, L., Mosconi, E., Indulska, M., & Baiyere, A. (2025). Digital transformation: Quo vadit? Information Systems Journal, 35(4), 1294-1308. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12578
Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 118-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2019.01.003 The recommended sixth piece described above.
Piccoli, G., Grover, V., & Rodriguez, J. (2024). Digital transformation requires digital resource primacy: Clarification and future research directions. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 33(2), 101835. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2024.101835 The named rival to R1’s delineation, discussed at the close of Lecture 1.
Markus, M. L., & Rowe, F. (2021). Guest editorial: Theories of digital transformation: A progress report. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(2). https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol22/iss2/11/
Hanelt, A., Bohnsack, R., Marz, D., & Antunes Marante, C. (2021). A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: Insights and implications for strategy and organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 58(5), 1159-1197. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12639
Matt, C., Hess, T., & Benlian, A. (2015). Digital transformation strategies. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 57(5), 339-343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-015-0401-5
Besson, P., & Rowe, F. (2012). Strategizing information systems-enabled organizational transformation: A transdisciplinary review and new directions. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 21(2), 103-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2012.05.001
Baiyere, A., Grover, V., Lyytinen, K. J., Woerner, S., & Gupta, A. (2023). Digital "x": Charting a path for digital-themed research. Information Systems Research, 34(2), 463-486. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.1186

Theme B: Logics as a theoretical lens

Baiyere, A., Zimmer, M. P., Staykova, K. S., & Jöhnk, J. (2025). Beyond digital vs. IT: The untold story of their relationship from an organizing logic perspective. Information Systems Research, 36(4), 2039-2075. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2021.0230
Sambamurthy, V., & Zmud, R. W. (2000). Research commentary: The organizing logic for an enterprise’s IT activities in the digital era. Information Systems Research, 11(2), 105-114. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.11.2.105.11780
Berente, N., & Yoo, Y. (2012). Institutional contradictions and loose coupling: Postimplementation of NASA’s enterprise information system. Information Systems Research, 23(2), 376-396. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1110.0373
Thornton, P. H., & Ocasio, W. (2008). Institutional logics. In Greenwood et al. (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (pp. 99-129). Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781849200387.n4
Zimmer, M. P., Baiyere, A., & Salmela, H. (2023). Digital workplace transformation: Subtraction logic as deinstitutionalising the taken-for-granted. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 32(1), 101757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2023.101757

Theme C: Strategizing and transforming

Chanias, S., Myers, M. D., & Hess, T. (2019). Digital transformation strategy making in pre-digital organizations: The case of a financial services provider. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(1), 17-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2018.11.003
Baiyere, A., Salmela, H., Nieminen, H., & Kankainen, T. (2025). Assessing digital capabilities for digital transformation: The MIND framework. Information Systems Journal, 35(1), 6-38. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12519
Warner, K. S. R., & Wäger, M. (2019). Building dynamic capabilities for digital transformation: An ongoing process of strategic renewal. Long Range Planning, 52(3), 326-349. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024630117303710
Salmela, H., Baiyere, A., Tapanainen, T., & Galliers, R. D. (2022). Digital agility: Conceptualizing agility for the digital era. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(5), 1080-1101. https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00767

Theme D: AI meets the logics

Faraj, S., Pachidi, S., & Sayegh, K. (2018). Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm. Information and Organization, 28(1), 62-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2018.02.005
Baird, A., & Maruping, L. M. (2021). The next generation of research on IS use: A theoretical framework of delegation to and from agentic IS artifacts. MIS Quarterly, 45(1), 315-341. https://doi.org/10.25300/MISQ/2021/15882
Lyytinen, K., Nickerson, J. V., & King, J. L. (2021). Metahuman systems = humans + machines that learn. Journal of Information Technology, 36(4), 427-445. https://doi.org/10.1177/0268396220915917
Benbya, H., Pachidi, S., & Jarvenpaa, S. L. (2021). Artificial intelligence in organizations: Implications for information systems research. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.17705/1jais.00662
Benbya, H., Strich, F., & Tamm, T. (2024). Navigating generative artificial intelligence promises and perils for knowledge and creative work. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 25(1), 23-36. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol25/iss1/13/
Raisch, S., & Fomina, K. (2025). Combining human and artificial intelligence: Hybrid problem-solving in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 50(2), 441-464. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2021.0421
Constantiou, I., Joshi, M., & Stelmaszak, M. (2023). Organizations as digital enactment systems: A theory of replacement of humans by digital technologies in organizational scanning, interpretation, and learning. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(6), 1770-1798. https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol24/iss6/1/ Read as a pair with the next entry, taking this one first for the strong replacement thesis.
Stelmaszak, M., Joshi, M., & Constantiou, I. (2026). Artificial intelligence as an organizing capability arising from human-algorithm relations. Journal of Management Studies, 63(2), 335-365. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.70003 The pair’s second step, a relational reframing on which AI capability arises from human-algorithm relations rather than from replacing the human side.
Rosenstand, C. A. F., & Baiyere, A. (2019). Digital "x": Beyond bounded rationality, toward a theory of bounded imagination. ISPIM Innovation Conference 2019. https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/307175305/Digital_X.pdf A conference paper; the bounded-imagination argument appears on Day 1.

Credit points

Doctoral students participating in the seminar can obtain 2 credit points. This requires participating and completing the assignments.

Credits require attendance on both days and three assignments, all assessed by the facilitator.

Assignment	Due	What it is
Positioning piece	Wed 12 Aug, 16:00 EEST	1-2 pages: your research in one paragraph, your position argued against at least one required reading, one tension, and three discussion points.
Day 2 presentation	Fri 14 Aug	Your research through the seminar’s lens. Depending on the final format, you may also give a short prepared response to one colleague’s presentation.
Research agenda memo	Fri 11 Sept	3-5 pages: one tension from the seminar restated in your own setting, 2-3 research questions, a sketch of the study you would run, and the readings that anchor it. Assessed pass or fail.

Registration fee

This seminar is free-of-charge for Inforte.fi member organization's staff and their PhD students. For others the participation fee is 400 €. The participation fee includes access to the event and the event materials. Lunch and dinner are not included.