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The Scope of Digital Transformation in Sustainability

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Digital and Sustainable Transformations in a Post-COVID World

Abstract

The promise of digital transformation (DT) in sustainability is contingent on organizations’ decisions to exploit digitalization to derive meaningful information and act on the consequences of activities that disturb our natural and social environment, affecting processes and business models. In that regard, the organizational mindset and not technology determines the direction of such transformation, delimiting the scope of sustainability. Based on a critical analysis of scholarly literature, this chapter postulates theoretical observations that frame the scope of DT in sustainability, discussing how and to what extent the constructs that explain DT match the theoretical presuppositions of sustainability. Consequently, it develops a conceptual framework that integrates complementary perspectives of DT based on a dual understanding of reality to characterize aggregate attributes contextualized in terms of sustainability. The chapter ends with a call for further consideration about sustainability implications beyond short-term business profits, inviting firms to embrace a long-term interest in the DT-sustainability nexus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Economía y Negocios, Universidad Anáhuac México, Huixquilucan, Mexico

    Guillermo J. Larios-Hernandez

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  1. Guillermo J. Larios-Hernandez
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Correspondence to Guillermo J. Larios-Hernandez .

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  1. Division of Social and Management Sciences—Department of Business and Finance, University of Guanajuato, Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico

    Salvador Estrada

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Larios-Hernandez, G.J. (2023). The Scope of Digital Transformation in Sustainability. In: Estrada, S. (eds) Digital and Sustainable Transformations in a Post-COVID World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16677-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16677-8_2

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