Professor Jiao Hao from BNUBS Has Published An Academic Paper in Management World

Recently, Professor Jiao Hao from BNUBS, as the corresponding author, collaborated with Researcher Liu Yang from the School of Management at Zhejiang University and Assistant Professor Dong Jiuyu from the School of Economics and Management at Dalian University of Technology to write a paper titled Paradoxical Dilemma, Executive Cognitive Framework, and Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises, which was published in the second issue of Management World in 2025.

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes "accelerating the development of the digital economy and promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy". The Notice of the State Council on Issuing the 14th Five Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy clearly regards "vigorously promoting the digital transformation of industries" as the core task, and deploys key industries' digital transformation improvement projects, emphasizing "deepening the digital transformation of industries, accelerating the full life cycle digital transformation of research and development design, production and manufacturing, business management, market services, etc. The digital transformation of manufacturing enterprises has entered a deep water zone, and how to trigger fundamental changes in organizational attributes through digital technology to achieve change has become a key focus of digital transformation for manufacturing enterprises at present.

This article finds that the obstacles faced by manufacturing enterprises in digital transformation stem from paradoxical dilemmas such as capability paradox, cooperation paradox, and governance paradox. When executives are able to accept the existence of conflicts and differentiate the elements of contradictions, they guide the company to implement segmented adaptive digital transformation based on the "cognitive framework of contradictions". When executives transform paradoxical dilemmas into a unified entity and integrate and handle conflicting elements, they use the "dialectical cognitive framework" to lead the enterprise in implementing a holistic and collaborative digital transformation. Therefore, this article constructs a theoretical framework for the micro mechanism of digital transformation in manufacturing enterprises from a cognitive perspective, which not only contributes to the literature on digital transformation, but also provides practical guidance for manufacturing enterprises on how to effectively cope with the obstacles encountered in transformation.

These findings provide practical guidance for manufacturing companies on how to effectively respond to obstacles encountered during transformation. A common misconception among manufacturing enterprises in the process of formulating digital transformation strategies is to follow the manufacturing logic that has been proven successful in the past to formulate future digital strategies. However, this study found that it is a major taboo to maintain the original cognitive framework when formulating digital transformation strategies. This requires manufacturing enterprise managers to fully evaluate the digital transformation obstacles faced by the enterprise in terms of capabilities, cooperation, and governance, and to attach great importance to the paradoxical dilemmas that exist. By deeply scanning and searching for internal and external information and treating this information with caution, they should avoid maintaining the original inertia of efficiency oriented simplification processing.

Liu Yang, Dong Jiuyu, Jiao Hao (corresponding authors), Paradoxical Dilemma, Executive Cognitive Framework, and Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises, published in Management World, Issue 2, 2025, article link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/m-bNgPWTZLKbxe14SfB6sg

Author Profile:

Jiao Hao is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and head of the Department of Digital Economy and Management at BNUBS. He is a recipient of the National Excellent Youth Science Fund, Chief Expert of Major Projects of the National Social Science Fund, Outstanding Young Scholar of the China Association for Science and Technology Policy Research, and Highly Cited Scholar of Elsevier Business Administration in China. His research focuses on the fields of digital economy, digital platform strategy, innovation management and policy, digital transformation, etc. He has led research projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Social Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Education's Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Beijing Municipal Key Social Sciences Project. He has won the Huo Yingdong Award for Young Teachers in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education, the second and third prizes of the Outstanding Achievement Award for Scientific Research in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education (Humanities and Social Sciences), the first prize of the Outstanding Achievement Award for Philosophy and Social Sciences in Beijing, the Outstanding Teacher Award of Baosteel, the China Management Science Award, the Outstanding Monograph Award of Jiang Yiwei's Enterprise Reform and Development Academic Fund, the first prize of the National Award for Progress in Business Science and Technology, the Beijing Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award, the Outstanding Project Award for Social Research of Young Teachers in Colleges and Universities in Beijing, the Outstanding Achievement Award for Basic Theory Research in Philosophy and Social Sciences in Zhejiang Province, the Outstanding Instructor of the 6th China International "Internet plus" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and other awards and honors.