This study examines the critical role of university IT departments in the digital transformation of higher education institutions. Despite their expertise, these departments often face challenges in facilitating digital transformation. Through a historical case study of a prominent research university, this paper explores the evolution of technology and organizational logic within the university's IT governance and its shortcomings in supporting digital transformation. It presents an in-depth analysis of the co-evolution of technological advancements and the organization responsible for technology support and maintenance. The paper traces the transition from the early era, dominated by academic logics, to contemporary IT organizations driven by bureaucratic and internal market logics. It further investigates the preference for specific technological solutions under different organizational logics. Crucially, the paper highlights a misalignment between the traditional logic of IT organizations and the demands of digital transformation, demonstrating that conventional IT approaches and logics are insufficient for addressing the challenges of digital transformation.

This study examines the role of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in digital transformation within Swedish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) amidst the fourth industrial revolution. Despite significant technological advances, the educational sector continues to rely on traditional methodologies and has not fully integrated digital technologies. Through a survey conducted among Swedish higher education CIOs, the research identifies a substantial variation in the understanding and implementation of digitalization, with 70% of institutions lacking a unified definition and only 40% having established digitalization plans. The results underscore that digital technologies are primarily utilized to improve administrative efficiency, often neglecting their potential to enhance educational and research outcomes. Moreover, the involvement of CIOs in strategic decision-making is inconsistent, which highlights the need for a reevaluation of their role to bolster their influence on policy and strategic planning. The paper advocates for a redefinition of the CIO’s role and calls for ongoing collaboration to develop effective digitalization strategies in higher education.

The digital transformation of society is ubiquitous, and even well-established educational institutions are affected. Universities need to adapt to the ongoing digital transformation, both to stay relevant but also to prosper. Yet, many public sector universities face obstacles when aiming to transform their business into a digital one, and this calls for research into the strategic organizational elements and related factors that hinder or aid the process. Drawing from an in-depth case study, it analyses data collected via a survey and multiple interviews to explore the organizational challenges a university faces when starting to adapt to digital transformation. The study shows that an organization's collective understanding of its business logics is a prerequisite to advancing digital transformation. The study of a university also shows that the digital transformation focus is skewed towards increasing efficiency rather than the innovation of new practices.

Organizations' strategic change projects and programs involving the implementation of IT services have interested project scholars. Yet, we still know little of how public sector universities, for example, adapt to the ongoing digital transformation and the challenges they face when aiming to transform their operations into a digital one. To address this issue, we conduct in-depth fieldwork to examine the activities that make up the establishment of the Digital University. Focusing on a leading technological university in Sweden that is undergoing digital transformation, the purpose of the case study was exploratory, i.e., to gain experience and an understanding – to raise issues for further research on the organizational challenges a university faces when undergoing digital transformation. To this end, the focus of the study was to delve into how digitalization efforts were managed and organized and if and when a more strategic approach was adopted. Our findings highlight that the university's need to quickly adapt and remain relevant based on new technical opportunities, as well as appoint competent staff, was the driving force behind the implementation of IT services. Based on our findings, we can conclude that some extensive challenges arise due to the actual change process and several organizational challenges because the digital transformation is skewed towards increasing efficiency rather than the adoption of more strategic innovation practices.