Abstract

Digitalisation is often driven by powerful discourse that shapes what organisations consider technologically possible and organisationally desirable. While information systems research has long recognised the productive, world-making capacity of such digitalisation discourse, it has largely operated on the good-faith assumption that discourse retains an epistemic commitment to technological capabilities and organisational reality. This paper challenges that assumption by introducing the concept of digitalisation bullshit. Drawing on 15 years of longitudinal engagement with the Norwegian offshore industry, the paper traces how truth-value yields to signal value as discourse becomes an instrument of strategic indifference. The paper develops an explanatory theory that reframes what is often dismissed as irrational behaviour as a rational strategy for handling institutional complexities. Finally, the paper discusses the systemic tension revealed by the analysis of digitalisation bullshit, drawing implications for the shared epistemic foundations of digitalisation processes and for the IS field.

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