The upsurge of digital innovations around the world has led to the establishment of many digital organizations, mostly small-medium, that focus on digital service innovation. For such organizations, the dominant use of digital technologies significantly shapes the cognition of their executives. But technology shaping of executive cognition is underresearched and, hence, underexplained. This paper seeks to address this limitation through an empirical study informed by critical realism and media ecology theory. The study explains how and why digital technology shapes executive cognition through combined influence of digital platforms and applications, service innovation, and executive functions. This explanation leads to the conceptualization of the executive of the digital organization as a platform. The Platform Executive is characterized by cognitive restructuring in a rapid and innovative manner during engagement with digital technologies. Based on these explanations, the paper discusses the theoretical, research, and practical implications.

全世界数字创新的兴起导致许多数字组织的建立，其中大多数是中小型的，专注于数字服务创新。对于此类组织，数字技术的占主导地位显着影响了其高管的认知度。但是，对执行认知的技术塑造还没有得到充分研究，因此也无法得到解释。本文力求通过批判现实主义和媒体生态学理论的实证研究来解决这一局限性。这项研究解释了数字技术如何以及为什么通过数字平台和应用程序，服务创新以及执行功能的综合影响来塑造执行人员的认知。这种解释导致将数字化组织的执行官作为平台的概念化。平台执行人员的特点是在使用数字技术期间以快速创新的方式进行认知重组。基于这些解释，本文讨论了理论，研究和实践意义。