Developing context-transcendent information systems for the future enterprise: Theory and insights from adaptive digital transformation

Enterprise information systems (IS) research has long emphasized the value of deep alignment between IS and the business contexts they serve. Yet this premise becomes increasingly problematic as enterprises operate across heterogeneous contexts whose structures, demands, and operating logics differ not only in degree but in kind. Under such conditions, deeper embedding in one context may weaken transferability, reconfigurability, and coherence across others. To address this tension and theorize the future of IS in the enterprise, we develop a process model of adaptive digital transformation (DT) and, from the insights it generates, introduce context-transcendent IS as a new paradigm for enterprise IS under conditions of contextual heterogeneity. Empirically, the paper draws on an in-depth case study of Geely, a multinational automotive enterprise confronting growing heterogeneity across brands, markets, and operations. We show how Geely responded through three recursively linked IT governance practices enacted across three stages of adaptive DT: synchronizing in value anchoring, recombining in capability orchestration, and diversifying in asset platformization. Together, these practices enabled the emergence of context-transcending IS and, ultimately, a more durable context-transcendent IS form. The study makes two contributions. First, it problematizes the conventional embedding premise in enterprise IS research by identifying contextual heterogeneity as a distinct source of enterprise-level tension. Second, it develops context-transcendent IS as a theoretically distinct and increasingly necessary form of enterprise IS for the future enterprise under sustained conditions of contextual heterogeneity in the operating landscapes.