Understanding Bricolage and Flow in Digital Strategy and Transformation

Despite significant scholarly attention to digital strategy and transformation (DST), existing research has concentrated on large enterprises, thus overlooking the distinct challenges encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Current conceptual frameworks typically portray DST as a linear and systematically planned process offer limited insights into how SMEs navigate this transformation amidst resource constraints. Adopting a combined bricolage and flow-oriented perspective, this study investigates how actors within an SME accounting practice engaged in improvisational strategies involving external vendors to address regulatory pressures and resource constraints. We propose a flow perspective in combination with bricolage that highlights the importance of lines of action particularly involving kairotic over chronological timing thereby contributing to both theoretical and practical understandings of DST in SMEs. The study underscores the necessity for nuanced, context-sensitive frameworks that acknowledge SMEs’ reliance on experimentation and adaptive improvisation in digitally transforming their operations.