Rethinking Information Technology Governance for Digital Business Ecosystems

The emergence of digital business ecosystems (DBEs) has impacted the industry tremendously. Participating in DBEs enables enterprises to offer their customers a comprehensive product and service portfolio while focusing on its core competencies. Moreover, DBEs allow enterprises to leverage new sales channels and directly access additional markets. The discipline of information technology (IT) governance is responsible to ensure that IT sustains and extends enterprise objectives. However, it is currently unclear how IT governance needs to be adapted and reorganized within DBEs to handle multiple self-contained enterprises. Therefore, we clarify the required IT governance redesign based on the results of interviews with 38 experts from 18 industries. The results reveal how IT governance is currently implemented within the industry and show its required adaptations, reorganizations, and challenges.