The Attitude of Family Firms Toward Digital Transformation: From the Organizational Learning Perspective

Abstract Digital transformation has been recognized as a challenge and an opportunity for conservative family firms to develop and renew their strategies to survive and grow in the digital era. This study draws on the organizational learning perspective to examine the attitude of family firms toward digital transformation. More specifically, this study investigates whether family firms invest more or less in digital transformation than non-family firms, and how this effect is conditioned by governance factors, namely, board dependence and family involvement in ownership. The empirical results show that the attitude of family firms toward digital transformation is not significant, but the negative effect of family firms toward digital transformation would be augmented if taking higher board independence and family involvement in ownership. The results of this study enrich the literature on organizational learning perspective and extend the research of digital transformation in the context of family businesses. JEL classification numbers: D22, D83. Keywords: Digital Transformation, Organizational Learning, Family Business.