Paper Number
ICIS2025-1798
Paper Type
Short
Abstract
Digital Transformation (DT) challenges organizations by unfolding through distributed and loosely coordinated initiatives, often creating tensions between strategic intent and operational execution, as well as between legacy systems and emerging digital capabilities. Despite substantial investment, many DT efforts fail due to fragmented governance and weak enterprise-level coordination. This short paper introduces the concept of enterprise-level steering as a situated practice to support alignment of strategy and execution in complex DT contexts. Drawing from project and IS literature on steering committees, we extend the concept to the enterprise-level. As initial steps in a broader research project adopting the echelonized Design Science Research approach, we derive initial design requirements and propose early-stage design principle candidates. The research aims to contribute to the DT discourse by addressing key tensions through an integrative platform for different stakeholders, and to the steering literature by reframing steering as an enterprise-level practice rather than a project-bound function.
Recommended Citation
Lösser, Benedict and Steiner, Daniel, "Design Principle Candidates for Steering Digital Transformation at the Enterprise-Level" (2025). ICIS 2025 Proceedings. 12.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2025/digitstrategy/digitstrategy/12
Design Principle Candidates for Steering Digital Transformation at the Enterprise-Level
Digital Transformation (DT) challenges organizations by unfolding through distributed and loosely coordinated initiatives, often creating tensions between strategic intent and operational execution, as well as between legacy systems and emerging digital capabilities. Despite substantial investment, many DT efforts fail due to fragmented governance and weak enterprise-level coordination. This short paper introduces the concept of enterprise-level steering as a situated practice to support alignment of strategy and execution in complex DT contexts. Drawing from project and IS literature on steering committees, we extend the concept to the enterprise-level. As initial steps in a broader research project adopting the echelonized Design Science Research approach, we derive initial design requirements and propose early-stage design principle candidates. The research aims to contribute to the DT discourse by addressing key tensions through an integrative platform for different stakeholders, and to the steering literature by reframing steering as an enterprise-level practice rather than a project-bound function.
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18-Strategy