Paper Number
ECIS2026-2251
Paper Type
CRP
Abstract
Crises are becoming increasingly complex and transboundary, involving a growing set of heterogeneous actors. In this study, we explore what role digital technologies fulfil on the boundaries between different actors during a crisis. We conduct a developmental literature review of 91 studies across the information systems (IS) and crisis management disciplines and adopt a boundary object lens to analyze the literature. We identify five crisis-related boundaries from the literature (physical, epistemic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) and illustrate how digital technologies can act as boundary objects by providing a connectivity, distribution, translation, negotiation, or crafting space. Importantly, we also identify how digital technologies may induce novel boundaries, instead providing a fragmentation space. This highlights that digital technologies play an ambivalent role in collaboration amongst heterogeneous actors in crisis management. We provide a future research agenda and offer practical recommendations for crisis management.
Recommended Citation
Struijk, Mylène; Alvytri, Cintya; and van der Varst, Laurens, "The Role Of Digital Technologies In Collaboration Amongst Heterogeneous Actors In Crisis Management" (2026). ECIS 2026 Proceedings. 14.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2026/litrev/litrev/14
The Role Of Digital Technologies In Collaboration Amongst Heterogeneous Actors In Crisis Management
Crises are becoming increasingly complex and transboundary, involving a growing set of heterogeneous actors. In this study, we explore what role digital technologies fulfil on the boundaries between different actors during a crisis. We conduct a developmental literature review of 91 studies across the information systems (IS) and crisis management disciplines and adopt a boundary object lens to analyze the literature. We identify five crisis-related boundaries from the literature (physical, epistemic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) and illustrate how digital technologies can act as boundary objects by providing a connectivity, distribution, translation, negotiation, or crafting space. Importantly, we also identify how digital technologies may induce novel boundaries, instead providing a fragmentation space. This highlights that digital technologies play an ambivalent role in collaboration amongst heterogeneous actors in crisis management. We provide a future research agenda and offer practical recommendations for crisis management.