TRANSFORMATIVE INNOVATION: Defining and Understanding a New Phenomenon within Organizations.

This thesis investigates the concept of “Transformative Innovation”, broadly defined as the set of unprecedented changes that organizations are currently experiencing, through three distinct perspectives. The first paper seeks to provide a conceptual definition for this phenomenon, extending existing policy-based concepts to an organizational context. The second paper sets aside theoretical constructs to directly explore how companies themselves describe and experience self-defined transformations, based on insights gathered from a multiple case study. Finally, the third paper considers how different aspects of transformation interact, and examines how they can function synergistically to enhance organizational performance and sustainability. In summary: The first paper focuses on the concept of Transformative Innovation (TI), a definition rooted in policy studies (Diercks, Larsen & Steward, 2019; Schot & Steinmueller, 2018) that refers to innovations that address societal challenges through the integration of technological advancements, social needs, and environmental objectives. Through a theory-infused literature review, we propose a comprehensive framework that conceptualizes TI in organizational contexts (Bright , Fry & Cooperrider, 2013) as the intersection of digital, sustainable, and business transformations: this framework underscores TI’s systemic, multilevel impact on organizations operating in rapidly evolving business environments. The second paper takes a qualitative approach to explore (self-defined) transformations as experienced by firms across various sectors. Through a multiple case study, based on 27 in-depth interviews analyzed with the Gioia methodology (Gioia, Corley & Hamilton, 2013), we identify how organizations reorient their corporate goals and activities to address different challenges. Our analysis highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of these transformations, which often involve key organizational themes such as business agility, customer-centricity, and sustainability. We argue that these changes are reshaping companies on an unprecedented scale and call for a more inclusive definition of transformation in organizational studies. The findings suggest the existence of shared patterns of organizational change and emphasize the need for further empirical research to expand the current understanding of this evolving phenomenon. Finally, the third paper adopts a quantitative approach and examines the relationship between Data-Driven Transformation (DDT) and Sustainability-Oriented Innovation (SOI). Adopting the Socio-Technical Systems (STS) framework (Trist & Bamforth, 1951), we argue that an organization’s capacity to balance its social (human) and technical (technological) systems is crucial for addressing digital and sustainability challenges. Our study highlights the potential tensions between DDT and sustainability goals, suggesting that transformational leadership plays a key role in mitigating these conflicts. We further hypothesize that innovation ambidexterity, the ability to balance radical and incremental innovation (Božič & Dimovski, 2019), mediates the relationship between DDT and SOI, helping organizations achieve both short-term efficiency and long-term sustainability. Our findings contribute to both strategy literature and the extension of STS theory in modern organizational contexts, emphasizing the importance of integrating social, technical, and environmental goals to achieve sustained competitive advantage