Navigating digital transformation for not-for-profits: exploring resource fluidity under access-based conditions

Yangting Li and Barney Tan

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Digital transformation (DT) is a pervasive phenomenon with substantial impact across organizational and societal levels, yet current scholarship largely centers on for-profit contexts where resource ownership is implicitly assumed. This leaves a critical gap in understanding how not-for-profit (NFP) organizations with critical societal impact, which are characterized by resource dependence, heightened accountability, and mission-driven goals, navigate DT. Drawing on a grounded qualitative case study of a large faith-based NFP in New Zealand, this study develops the concept of resource fluidity, an organizational capability to flexibly access, recombine, and redeploy non-owned resources across tasks and time with minimal friction. Resource fluidity unfolds through a three-phase process: (1) Identification of resources with polymorphic potential, (2) Activation through envisioning, redeployment, and experimentation capabilities, and (3) Application guided by mission-driven governance. This study contributes to DT research by shifting the focus from proprietary resource to flexible access-based arrangements and offers a contextualized understanding of how NFP organizations can enact cost-effective and mission-aligned DT under resource constraints.

Keywords: digital transformation; not-for-profits; resource fluidity; grounded theory; access-based resourcing; qualitative case study; digital strategy; mission-driven governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2026-10-31
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Published in International Journal of Information Management, 31, October, 2026, 90. ISSN: 0268-4012

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