Managing Digital Change in Public University Libraries: A Case Study from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

This study examined how public university libraries in Ho Chi Minh City manage organizational change during digital transformation in the context of higher education governance reform and increasing institutional autonomy in Vietnam. It investigates how established change management theories can be contextualized and operationalized within a highly regulated public-sector environment. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study combined a systematic literature review and semi-structured interviews involving 43 participants, including university leaders, library directors, and library staff, across nine public universities. Interview data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis and interpreted through Lewin’s three-stage model and Kotter’s eight-step model to develop an integrated, context-specific change management framework comprising four stages and eleven operational steps. The findings indicate that successful digital transformation depends not only on technological infrastructure but also on strategic leadership, policy alignment, organizational capability, continuous communication, and evidence-based evaluation. Although Lewin’s and Kotter’s models provide valuable conceptual guidance, their effective application requires careful contextual adaptation to the regulatory and institutional conditions of Vietnamese public higher education. Persistent challenges include bureaucratic procedures, resource constraints, uneven managerial capability, and staff resistance to change. Rather than proposing a new theory, this study contributes by demonstrating how empirical evidence can be used to contextualize and operationalize established change management principles through an integrated framework tailored to Vietnamese public university libraries. The proposed framework provides a practical reference for academic libraries undertaking digital transformation in comparable public-sector settings and offers a foundation for future empirical validation.