Paper short abstract:

Beyond organisational boundaries, a meta-organisational approach is needed to understand sustainable digital transformation (SDT). This research explores platforms and related digital stacks in an effort to understand their roles as capability enablers of SDT.

Paper long abstract:

Sustainable development and sustainability are three-dimensional concepts involving social, environmental, and economic factors, whose nexus to digital transformation (DT), and related constructs, is usually one-sided and connected to the organisational ability to achieve new capabilities and short-term resource efficiencies. This position neglects the long-term rebound effects that accrue from global value chains (GVC) complexities, since sustainability can hardly be achieved if its nexus to DT is constrained to the boundaries of the organisation. Hence, a meta-organisational approach to sustainable digital transformation (SDT) becomes necessary, starting with a deeper understanding of digital technologies as SDT facilitators. A coloured example of such an approach is platform developmentalism, whose basket of digital technologies (stacks) remodels enterprise participation in GVC, especially for entrepreneurs and small firms, suggesting a change of perspective in SDT: from the boundaries of the organisation to forms of organising digital capabilities. This research explores platforms and related digital stacks in an effort to understand their roles as capability enablers of SDT. Based on a documentary examination and semi-structured interviews to platform stakeholders, this proposal identifies key functions of such enablers (e.g., purpose, materiality, relationships, institutional effects, case studies, etc.), to develop a framework proposal that characterises SDT from the perspective of platform developmentalism, with implications on GVC, international trade, and new forms of institutional entrepreneurship.