Dynamic capabilities as paths to organizational readiness for digital transformation: an analysis of the NRRP horizontal reform “public administration digitalization”

Over the last two decades, the adoption of information and communication technologies has proven beneficial to public deliveries allowing organizations to transform many traditional encounters into automated or smart services. Examples of such usages include online student classes, remote patient-family physician relationships, and from-home work for civil servants. Pur- suing such goals has led several governments to prioritize digital transformation for their reform agenda. However, implementing digital transformation in public sector organizations does not equate to digitizing, i.e., the simple conversion of analog inputs into digits but “being digital”. Such a metamorphosis demands the development of specific dynamic capabilities which make an organization ready to implement digital transformation. To investigate such a transformation process, the paper adopts the organizational readiness framework to assess the NRRP horizontal reform “public administration digitalization” with the intent to reveal which organizational and managerial logic, resources, and routines lead to public value creation through digitalization. Our analysis illustrates how integrating technological-driven dynamic capabilities with human resources digital skills provides paths for public sector organizations to move from a mere “digi- tization” to a pervasive “digitalization”, enabling superior public value appropriation by the user, community, and service professionals.