• Examine government’s role in orchestrating extra-government digitalization initiatives through sectoral governance via public policy innovation. • Focus on high impact digital transformation of the microbusiness sector in Ireland. • Theorize the knowledge mechanisms through which sectoral governance facilitate the digital transformation of microbusiness sector. • Leverage a rich Irish case study of a government led digital transformation program in the context of microbusiness. • Identify roles of knowledge ecosystem stakeholders, pathways, and practices and map their social value and well being impacts. Most prior public sector digital transformation (DT) research has examined the role of digitalization in improving either the internal operational efficiency of the government or the quality of government service delivery to external stakeholders such as citizens and businesses. Although policy-driven digitalization of specific sectors is key for promoting public value, government’s role in orchestrating extra-government digitalization initiatives to create public value has not been sufficiently investigated. To address this perceptible void in the public sector DT literature, we study a government-led DT program designed to promote digitalization among microbusinesses (MB), a sector that has major economic and social implications. Given the significant role of technical and business knowledge in facilitating enterprise DT, we examine and theorize different knowledge mechanisms through which government policy initiatives can help foster MBs’ DT. Drawing on qualitative data from a series of structured interviews and focus groups with government agents, digital champions, and MB owner-managers involved in the implementation of a government-led DT program for MBs in Ireland, among the different DT stakeholders, we identify three knowledge pathways playing different knowledge-related roles and aiming to facilitate this transformation: top-down, bottom-up, and multidirectional. Each pathway comprises distinct practices. Collectively, the identified knowledge mechanisms in the DT program knowledge ecosystem foster social value creation for both MBs and government stakeholders, and therefore for the nation as a whole. Specifically, sustenance of the DT program is achieved through “initiation” and “instantiation” knowledge routes. Our findings offer theoretical contributions to the literatures on government-led digital transformations, effectiveness of government-led digital initiatives, and digital transformation in the MB sector. Our study also has significant implications for policy and practice.

For better governance, information systems development (ISD) projects are often decomposed ex ante, using client requirements, to create self-contained modules. Following such a modular approach allows independent and efficient structuring of ISD project work. However, given the integrated nature of ISD work, maintaining information flows across the different modules within ISD projects is essential. Through an in-depth examination of six ISD projects, we discover four types of requirements information interdependencies across ISD project modules. Next, we identify appropriate control portfolios for governing the different types of inter-modular requirements information interdependencies. Results indicate that different types of requirements information interdependencies necessitate governance through varying control portfolios. Our study contributes to the ISD literature by identifying the nuanced mechanisms through which requirements information interdependencies could be better governed by applying appropriate control portfolios. Our study also offers significant practical implications for ISD project governance.

Despite the economic and societal significance of microbusinesses (MBs), digital transformation (DT) efforts in the MB sector have been rather sporadic. Further, prior DT studies have primarily examined large- and mid-sized organisations, leaving a perceptible void in the literature. In this paper, we leverage the unique context of MBs and recognise the key role of microbusiness owner-managers (MBOMs) for the management and sustenance of DT initiatives. Specifically, we theorise the influence of MBOMs’ DT readiness in terms of their growth and technology mindsets contributing to their DT learning resources and processes. Drawing on qualitative data from a series of structured interviews and focus groups with MBOMs and other key stakeholders in the Irish MB digital ecosystem, we identity three MBOM digital transformer archetypes comprising unique configurations of MBOMs’ growth and technology mindsets, namely: champion digital transformers, emerging digital transformers, and aspiring digital transformers. For each of these archetypes, we explore the different learning capabilities and mechanisms through which MBOMs manage and sustain their digital transformation efforts. Our findings offer theoretical contributions to the fields of digital transformation in microbusinesses, digital leadership, and digital capabilities. Our study also has significant implications for policy and practice.

COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a surge in the amount of fake news circulating on the Internet. However, despite the global bearing of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a significant variance in the propensity of COVID-19 related fake news instances across nations. To better understand the national-level factors contributing to the spread of fake news during the current pandemic, we theorise and examine the relationships of “mobile connectivity” and “freedom” (economic, political, and media) in a nation, with fake news propensity. We test the proposed model through a unique dataset comprising 72 countries generated by combining 6 independent cross-country data sources. We find that “mobile connectivity” and “political freedom” in a nation contribute to COVID-19 related fake news propensity, whereas “economic” and “media freedom” inhibit it. Our study provides preliminary insights into the mechanisms through which national-level systemic resources can be leveraged for battling the spread of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. In addition, our study offers several important implications for governments and policymakers that we believe will be instrumental in stimulating future research on the subject.

Though volunteer-driven Free (Libre) and Open Source Software (FLOSS) development were founded on the ideological beliefs of “openness” and “absence of any commercial appropriation”, in recent years, FLOSS movement has witnessed two ideological shifts. First, the emergence of “permissive FLOSS licences” that allow commercial appropriation of the collaboratively developed code, and second, “organisational ownership” of FLOSS projects. Because ideological beliefs shape the motivational needs of the volunteer contributors, and motivational needs influence the dominant work structures, it is expected that ideological shifts could influence the mechanisms through which work is orchestrated in FLOSS projects. Motivated by the need to understand the impact of these ideological shifts, we theorise the mechanisms through which the two ideological shifts alter the influence of FLOSS work structures on project outcomes of popularity and survival. Adopting an instrument variable approach, our analysis of projects hosted on GitHub confirms the significance of both the ideological shifts with some interesting contextual differences across the two project outcomes. Specifically, we find that the ideological shift pertaining to licence type has a significant influence on both the examined project outcomes, whereas organisational ownership has a significant influence only on the popularity of FLOSS projects.

Implementation of innovative technology in organizations is often fraught with challenges. Past literature on mindfulness suggests that mindful implementation of innovative solutions facilitates success and enhances effectiveness for the organization. Integrating insights from the mindfulness and stakeholder perspectives, we present and analyze a longitudinal case study of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implementation at YCH Group, a leading logistics provider in the Asia-Pacific region. Our objectives are to examine key attributes of mindfulness as well as identify specific organizational routines that fostered mindfulness at YCH that ultimately paved the way for effective implementation of RFID technology. Important lessons can be learnt from how YCH instituted organizational routines that enabled them to mindfully implement RFID, by explicitly considering both internal and external stakeholders.

Using secondary data from 99 countries and IT impact literature as the guiding theoretical perspective; we examine the payoffs from e-government in the form of national performance. We do this by initially examining the relationship of e-government development with the first order government process efficiency parameters (resource spending efficiency and administrative process efficiency). Subsequently we examine the association of these first order efficiency outcomes with the two second order dimensions of national performance (reduction of social divide and business competitiveness). Our analysis reveals significant association of ‘e-government development’ with both the first order ‘government efficiency parameters’. Further analysis reveals significant relationships of ‘government efficiency parameters’ with the dimensions of ‘national performance’. Important role of ‘national business competitiveness’ in the reduction of ‘social divide’ is brought forth through post-hoc analysis. Through this research, we make some important contributions which have implications for researchers, practitioners, public administrators, and policy makers.