Digital value systems and sustainability

The information systems (IS) literature has a long tradition of research examining challenges inherent in realizing expected business value and competitive advantage from their digital investments (Kohli & Devaraj, 2003), so how is it possible that the success rate on digital transformation initiatives is reported to be no greater than 30% (Bellantuono et al. 2021)? Leveraging an extended definition of digital transformation as ‘a socioeconomic change across individuals, organizations, ecosystems, and societies that are shaped by the adoption and utilization of digital technologies’ Dabrowska et al.’s (2022), this chapter introduces the overall structure of the book by defining a digital value system as three unique sub-systems: societal value system, organizational value system, and functional value system. The link to sustainable business practices is also established by describing the evolution of Internet Technology and differentiating sub-systems based on paradoxical tensions that digital technology can resolve.