Institutions, resources and dynamic capabilities: towards a theoretical understanding of the digital transformation of public administrations

Abstract

Abstract

The implementation and use of digital technologies are two challenges that public administrations are currently facing. No sector or organization is immune from the effects of digital transformation. The potential of these technologies is often wider than that of administrative procedures, decision-making circuits or modes of relationship with users. Under these conditions, complete public management models are frequently modified. Faced with this dynamic, the literature on e-government remains largely descriptive or technical, leaving a theoretical void as to the explanatory mechanisms of digitization in an institutional context marked by specific constraints. This article sought to fill this gap by proposing a rigorous conceptualization of public digital transformation and by mobilizing theoretical frameworks from strategic management to grasp its determinants. This article uses RBV, institutional theory and dynamic capabilities to explain the role of internal, external and adaptation factors in the digital transformation of public administrations. The synthesis of these three theories in an integrative analytical framework proposes a structured reading grid making it possible to better understand this organizational change within the framework of public entities.

Keywords: Digital transformation, dynamic capabilities, institutional theory, public administration, RBV