To realize their strategic goals and maintain a competitive advantage in the digital era, organizations must periodically renew their digital platforms and infrastructures. However, knowledge about such technology renewal is scattered across diverse research streams, so insights into the process are both limited and fragmented. In this article, we consolidate insights from previous research to conceptualize technology renewal as an inherently paradoxical digital transformation process that requires organizations to simultaneously remove their technological foundation and build on the practices that depend on it to implement a new technological foundation. Previous research suggests that technology renewal initiatives are driven by three paradoxical tensions: (a) established vs renewed technology usage, (b) deliberate vs emergent renewal practices and (c) inner vs outer renewal contexts. We apply this framing to a longitudinal case study in which we analyse and explain how an organization's responses to manifestations of these tensions eventually led to a vicious cycle of continued investments into two overlapping and largely incompatible digital platforms over a 9‐year period. Based on these conceptual and empirical insights, we theorize technology renewal as a paradoxical, and increasingly critical, digital transformation process that forces managers to make decisions in complex and ambiguous choice situations.

中文翻译：

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数字化转型中技术更新的悖论视角

为了在数字时代实现其战略目标并保持竞争优势，组织必须定期更新其数字平台和基础设施。然而，关于此类技术更新的知识分散在不同的研究流中，因此对该过程的见解既有限又零散。在本文中，我们整合了先前研究的见解，将技术更新概念化为一个本质上自相矛盾的数字化转型过程，它要求组织同时移除其技术基础并建立依赖于它的实践来实施新的技术基础。先前的研究表明，技术更新计划是由三个矛盾的紧张关系驱动的：(a) 既定技术使用与更新技术使用，(b) 刻意与紧急更新实践和 (c) 内部与外部更新环境。我们将此框架应用于纵向案例研究，在该研究中，我们分析并解释了组织对这些紧张局势的反应如何最终导致在 9 年期间持续投资于两个重叠且基本不兼容的数字平台的恶性循环。基于这些概念和实证见解，我们将技术更新理论化为一个自相矛盾且日益关键的数字化转型过程，迫使管理者在复杂和模棱两可的选择情况下做出决策。对这些紧张局势的反应最终导致了一个恶性循环，即在 9 年的时间里继续投资于两个重叠且基本不兼容的数字平台。基于这些概念和实证见解，我们将技术更新理论化为一个自相矛盾且日益关键的数字化转型过程，迫使管理者在复杂和模棱两可的选择情况下做出决策。对这些紧张局势的反应最终导致了一个恶性循环，即在 9 年的时间里继续投资于两个重叠且基本不兼容的数字平台。基于这些概念和实证见解，我们将技术更新理论化为一个自相矛盾且日益关键的数字化转型过程，迫使管理者在复杂和模棱两可的选择情况下做出决策。