Digitalization and Its Discontents: Resistance to Technology in the Toy Industry

Abstract

Digital technology has permeated organizational and public life, but not without resistance. As the value of digital technologies have become evident, so too have their social costs. To understand how organizations navigate social resistance to technological change, I conducted a qualitative study of digital innovation in the toy industry. I embedded myself in the industry for six years through a combination of field observation, interviews, and archival analyses. My findings suggest that resistance to change can inspire cycles of revisionist innovation as organizations (re)create both the meaning and form of a new technology. I extend these ideas in a comparative case study of five organizations seeking to design breakthrough innovations. Drawing on theories from the toy industry, my coauthors and I identify a novel capability, play, that helps leaders to manage the anxieties of technological change. In the concluding chapter, I integrate these findings into a model of revisionary technology strategy and offer reflections on the implications for practice.