“Digital Sustainability”: Addressing Managerial, Organizational, and Institutional Challenges

Abstract

This special issue of the Academy of Management Perspectives explores the emerging concept of digital sustainability, which integrates digital transformation and sustainability as two “intertwined” imperatives for modern organizations. Organizations are facing mounting pressure to embrace both digital technology and sustainability goals, but the convergence of these agendas remains undertheorized and underexamined in research. In this editorial, we define digital sustainability as the symbiotic pursuit of digital transformation and sustainability performance for the long-term viability of an organization—that is, as the organization’s capability to successfully configure, deploy, and govern digital infrastructures and practices so as to create, capture, and distribute value in ways that are compatible with ecological limits and social justice. The contributions in this special issue examine digital sustainability through multiple conceptual lenses—functional, systems, problematizing, and reflexive perspectives, or a combination thereof—highlighting both its transformative potential and its inherent tensions. Collectively, the articles compiled here demonstrate that outcomes depend not on technology alone but crucially also on governance, organizational capabilities, and institutional context. By consolidating emerging knowledge and outlining future research directions, this collection positions digital sustainability as a central challenge—and opportunity—for scholars, managers, and policymakers alike.