We are pleased to invite you to participate in the 1st Workshop on “Tradition as Resource or Constraint for Strategic Action in the Digital Age” organised by Bayes Business School’s Digital Leadership Research Centre, University of Bologna, New York University, IE Madrid, and LUM.

The workshop’s objectives are to exchange and cross-fertilise ideas from scholars interested in the role of tradition in strategy-making and organizing. The workshop explores how organizations use tradition as a resource, particularly how managers and entrepreneurs leverage cherished traditions to achieve growth and innovation without undermining valued legacies and their own administrative heritage.

In addition to the broad focus on the interplay between tradition and innovation, the workshop aims to gather papers examining contemporary challenges related to the role of tradition within a rapidly changing competitive landscape shaped by the adoption of digital technologies in all types of organizations. We are open to multiple perspectives on these topics and how strategy mediates the tensions that often emerge at the intersection of cherished traditions and imperatives to transform.

We expect to host an intimate academic conference of leading scholars worldwide, and we are not restricted to any theoretical orientation or methodological approach. The conference steering committee invites the submission of rigorous research papers that shed light on the following questions:

• How can firms manage the tension between tradition and innovation?
• To what extent can tradition go hand in hand with innovation?
• How to accommodate the renewal of a cherished tradition without stifling it?
• What is storytelling’s role in preserving and catalysing change in the delicate balance between tradition and innovation?
• How does the tension between tradition and innovation change over time?
• How do organizations perpetuate and leverage traditions in the face of heterogeneous (and sometimes opposing) audience preferences (e.g., peers, customers, critics, etc.)?
• How to navigate the demands of rapidly changing digital environments without threatening timeless values, norms, and beliefs?
• How do digital technologies enable or constrain the rethinking of traditional products?
• Does a strong focus on tradition inhibit innovation? If so, why and under what conditions?
• How do organizations use narratives to enable dialogue and negotiation between tradition and innovation?