Open Access

Ricarda Marie Schäfer

• Sustainability is a key topic in organizational, societal, and political debates. It encompasses economic (e.g., economic development in the Global South), social (e.g., gender equality), and environmental dimensions (e.g., climate change mitigation). Despite efforts, many sustainability challenges remain due to their complexity. While governments like the EU and UN set sustainability agendas, large private organizations significantly impact sustainability through their products and practices, balancing legal, moral, and business interests. Organizations need innovation to create sustainable products, services, processes, or business models. The rise of digital technologies (e.g., cloud computing, AI) has transformed innovation, offering new opportunities for sustainability. Digital innovation can generate economic, social, and environmental value, such as energy and carbon management systems that improve environmental performance. However, its full potential for sustainability isSustainability is a key topic in organizational, societal, and political debates. It encompasses economic (e.g., economic development in the Global South), social (e.g., gender equality), and environmental dimensions (e.g., climate change mitigation). Despite efforts, many sustainability challenges remain due to their complexity. While governments like the EU and UN set sustainability agendas, large private organizations significantly impact sustainability through their products and practices, balancing legal, moral, and business interests. Organizations need innovation to create sustainable products, services, processes, or business models. The rise of digital technologies (e.g., cloud computing, AI) has transformed innovation, offering new opportunities for sustainability. Digital innovation can generate economic, social, and environmental value, such as energy and carbon management systems that improve environmental performance. However, its full potential for sustainability is not yet realized, necessitating a deeper understanding of digital innovation actions, environments, and outcomes. This dissertation contributes to digital innovation for sustainability through qualitative and quantitative methods, interdisciplinary insights, and various contexts. It focuses on three categories: (1) digital innovation actions, (2) digital innovation environments, and (3) digital innovation outcomes, analyzing their sustainability implications. First, the dissertation examines digital innovation actions required to create sustainability value. Organizations engage in activities like opportunity exploration and solution development. Digital innovations can serve as tools for innovation actions or as final products (e.g., mobile apps). Examples include: Digital Innovation as a Means: Online crowdsourcing and large language models effectively evaluate ideas for complex sustainability challenges, reducing time and cost constraints. Evaluation procedures and challenge specialization levels are critical for performance. Digital Innovation as an End: Successful digital transformations rely on rapid prototyping, entrepreneurial cultures, ambidexterity, and technology recombination, contributing to economically sustainable outcomes. Second, the dissertation explores internal (e.g., employees, culture) and external (e.g., customers, competitors) innovation environments: Internal Environment: A motivated workforce is vital for sustainability. However, working with digital technologies can cause technostress, affecting health and productivity. The dissertation identifies 24 technostress prevention measures and their applicability across organizations. External Environment: Customer behavior is crucial for sustainability. For instance, sustainable to-go beverage alternatives are effective only if customers use them. The dissertation identifies five factors influencing sustainable consumer decisions and explores digital tools to promote pro-environmental behavior. Third, the dissertation investigates digital innovation outcomes for sustainability, including new products, services, processes, and business models. Smart urban agriculture exemplifies this, offering economic, social, and environmental benefits but facing implementation challenges. A taxonomy of smart urban agriculture solutions clarifies digital innovation outcomes, highlighting technology, data, and urban agriculture approaches. Additionally, 20 organizational readiness factors across cultural, strategic, and technological domains support leveraging sustainability value. Finally, the dissertation presents a research agenda for digital social innovation, addressing: 1) Digital social innovation ecosystems, 2) Managing conflicts and synergies between sustainability dimensions, 3) Integration into diverse contexts, 4)The role of data, and 5)Assessing digital social innovation success. In summary, this dissertation enhances understanding of digital innovation actions, environments, and outcomes for sustainability. Employing a behavioral science paradigm with qualitative and quantitative methods, the findings support researchers and practitioners in leveraging digital innovation to create sustainability value.…