Edidiong Bassey (Cardiff University) – Digital Transformation as Gradual Institutional Change: Evidence from Developing-Country Public Administration

Digital transformation has become central to public administration reform, yet its evolution in developing countries remains underexplored. While existing research demonstrates the benefits of specific digital tools, less is known about how digital transformation unfolds over time within public organisations. This study addresses this by conducting a longitudinal analysis of digital reform within Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) over a sixteen year period. Drawing on 77 semi-structured interviews and archival data, the study adopts an abductive approach, informed by the theory of gradual institutional change, to examine the mechanisms by which digital transformation developed over time and identifies three of the framework’s four mechanisms: conversion, drift, and layering, operating sequentially and in interaction.

The findings reveal a transformation trajectory that was real but non-linear: initial reforms produced substantial institutional and technological change, yet subsequent phases were shaped by shifting evaluative pressures and the persistent coexistence of digital and manual administrative processes. The study advances digital government research and institutional theory by providing a process-based explanation of how transformation is a temporally unfolding, non-cumulative phenomenon, and by offering new insight into how institutional conditions shape the trajectory of digital reform in developing-country public administration. Policy and practice implications are discussed.