Organisational change and resistance to corporate digital transformation: an actor network theory perspective on the E+H case

This study examines how Endress+Hauser (E+H), a global measurement-instrument company, formulated and sustained its digital transformation (DT) strategy through the lens of actor network theory (ANT). To operationalise ANT, Callon's four-stage translation process - problematisation, interessement, enrolment, and mobilisation - was adopted as the core analytical framework, and empirical cases were mapped onto these stages for systematic analysis. The findings indicate that human and non-human actors, organisational actors, and system/network actors interact in a nonlinear, parallel, and adaptive manner, forming reciprocal networks that diffuse and amplify change. As organisational change and resistance co-evolve through ongoing feedback, these networks can dissolve, be reconstituted, and become reinforced or expanded over time. Overall, the ANT perspective suggests that DT strategies are not reducible to linear cause-and-effect logics; rather, they emerge from complex relational processes that integrate internal resources, leadership, organisational culture and processes, digital technologies, external partners, organisational members, and institutional environments.