Communication Framing in Digital Transformation: Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions of Opportunity and Threat Framing Affecting Employees’ Technology Adoption

Dong Yuntao, Tang Mingyue, Chen Xiaoxuan

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 46, Issue 10, pp. 135 - 152 (2024)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20240901.102

Summary

To advance organizations’ digital transformation and promote employees’ digital technology adoption and use, organizations utilize differentiated communication framing to communicate with employees concerning digital transformation. To demonstrate the effectiveness of different perceived communication framing on employees’ digital technology adoption, this paper explores the impact of employees’ perceived opportunity framing and threat framing on their cognitive clarity of digital transformation and digital technology adoption behaviors, as well as the potential moderating role of the dynamism perception of organizations’ external environment. The findings reveal that perceived opportunity framing significantly enhances individuals’ cognitive clarity of digital transformation and indirectly boosts digital technology adoption behaviors; while the impact of perceived threat framing depends on the dynamism perception of organizations’ external environment. When the environmental dynamism is higher, threat framing effectively increases the clarity of digital transformation and the subsequent digital technology adoption behaviors; when the environmental dynamism is lower, threat framing decreases the clarity of digital transformation and indirectly reduces digital technology adoption behaviors. This paper offers theoretical guidance and practical insights for optimizing communication practices in digital transformation.

Keywords

digital transformation; perceived communication framing; digital technology adoption; clarity of digital transformation