Abstract
In today’s global society, people, devices, and organizations are highly interdependent, leading to extensive ecosystem transitivity, which can trigger cascading failures that disrupt the economy. Despite the importance of ecosystem transitivity, few relevant national policies are in place. In this article, we identify the unaddressed problem of ecosystem transitivity. The source of concern is the opacity of dependency in the massive, complex, and interconnected collection of information systems on which society is heavily reliant. There is a need for an information system to increase transparency and reduce a nation’s organizational continuity risk, as illustrated by the examples discussed. We recommend several options for national policy management to mitigate the systemic risks associated with ecosystem transitivity.
Recommended Citation
Desouza, Kevin C.; Watson, Richard Thomas; and Xie, Yancong
(2026)
"Managing Digital Dependencies in a Connected Society: Policy Options for Ecosystem Transitivity,"
Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 27(6), 1339-1356.
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00979
Available at:
https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol27/iss6/8
DOI
10.17705/1jais.00979
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