Investigating User Resistance of Employees Working at Technology Companies in Istanbul towards Digital Transformation

Technology companies in a continuous transformation process within the scope of Industry 4.0 practices have followed rapidly changing and developing technological advances closely and have made permanent and successful digital transformation efforts. However, there might be met with resistance of employees sometimes during the digital transformation process. This study examines the user resistance of the employees working at technology companies in Istanbul towards digital transformation and determining user resistance factors. A survey questionnaire was prepared to gather the data. In this regard, The Scale of User Resistance towards Information Systems Implementation developed by Kim & Kankanhalli (2009) with 24 statements was used. The scale has seven dimensions: user resistance, perceived value, switching benefits, switching costs, colleague opinion, self-efficacy for change, and organizational support. The target population of the study consists of the employees working at the technology companies in Istanbul. One of the pioneer companies of the information technology sector was selected as the sample group, and 220 employees attended the research based on voluntariness. SPSS 22.0 program was used for the analysis of the data. According to the results, it was found that the participants have low-level user resistance and adapt to the digital transformation at high-level generally. Furthermore, as the result of hypothesis tests, the findings indicate an effect of perceived value and switching benefits, self-efficacy on user resistance, self-efficacy and organizational support on switching costs, and colleague opinion on perceived value and switching benefits, were reached. At the end of the research, the findings were interpreted via previous research findings. Some recommendations were made for both future studies and the sector on adaptation to the digital transformation. https://dorl.net/dor/20.1001.1.20088302.2021.19.2.7.5