Enabling transformation through digital technologies and structural change: the role of dynamic capabilities

Purpose This study aims to develop a process-oriented framework integrating digital technologies, organizational structures, capabilities and performance outcomes to clarify the digitalization paradox and advance understanding of digital transformation (DT) as an enterprise-level renewal process. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a conceptual synthesis approach integrating adaptive structuration theory (AST), the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities within an input–process–output analytical structure. AST explains how digital technologies and organizational structures are recursively enacted through human agency; RBV clarifies how enacted configurations generate sustained competitive advantage; and dynamic capabilities bridge process and performance by enabling sensing, seizing and transforming of the resource base. The framework identifies three interrelated transformation pathways – technology-driven, structure-driven and DT-driven – that jointly shape capability development and strategic renewal. Findings The framework demonstrates that DT outcomes depend not solely on technological investment but on recursive alignment among technology enactment, structural adaptation and capability reconfiguration. By organizing these mechanisms into iterative learning cycles, the model provides a process-based explanation for the digitalization paradox: transformation failures often stem from misaligned structuration and insufficient capability renewal rather than technological deficiencies. Sustained performance emerges when digital technologies, organizational structures and dynamic capabilities co-evolve over time. Originality/value This study advances DT research by integrating process theory and resource theory into a unified temporal logic. It reconciles AST’s duality of structure with RBV’s value-creation perspective through a dynamic capability lens, offering both theoretical clarity and managerial guidance. The framework shifts attention from isolated technology adoption toward recursive organizational renewal, providing scholars and practitioners with a structured approach to diagnosing and managing DT in dynamic environments.