Chasing Digitalization: Understanding Control and Dispersion of Digitalization in Public Sector Organizations

ABSTRACT The study aims to contribute knowledge about how we can understand control of digitalization and why digitalization becomes a dispersed practice. The study offers two main contributions. First, we introduce the metaphor chasing digitalization to describe the observed mode of control of digitalization. Control involved chasing after digital solutions—getting hold of things—and chasing in , which entails facilitating activities to ensure organizational adoption. The second contribution deepens our understanding of why digitalization frequently results in a dispersed practice. Chasing in often triggers chasing after and vice versa. For example, when many actors are chasing after, a need arises to coordinate more. Against the backdrop of recurring reports of failed digitalization projects in the public sector, the study contributes by conceptualizing control challenges. The contribution is the result of an empirically grounded analysis based on the actor‐network concepts of framing and overflowing. The empirical case focuses on the Swedish school sector.