INFLUENCE OF ICT ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY OF BORN VIRTUAL AND NON-BORN VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS

The ongoing digitalization is accompanied by an increasing virtualization of organizations and society. This change, especially intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, is accompanied by a shift of the role of information and communication technology (ICT), which can influence the organizations’ identity. Since organizational identity depends on the form of organizations and collaboration, this paper studies ICT’s impact on born and non-born virtual organizations using qualitative research. We distinguish between three types of organizations: (1) born virtual organizations and non-born virtual organizations, i.e. (2) digitialized and (3) traditional organizations. The findings indicate that ICT's role differs within the different organizations’ identities. Therefore, our findings suggest that the organizational identity of traditional organizations is shaped by personal contact and ICT has little to no influence. While ICT supports the organizational identity of digitalized organizations, it has a stronger influence on the identity of born virtual organizations, where personal meetings are also decisive.