Governing Sustainable Digital Transformation: An Adaptive Architecture for Embedding Sustainability in Transformation Decisions

Abstract

Digital transformation creates opportunities for sustainable value creation but also generates complex governance challenges. This paper conceptualises Sustainability-Embedded Digital Transformation (SEDT) as a governance perspective and develops an Adaptive Transformation Governance Architecture (ATGA) that provides a mechanism for its implementation. Grounded in transformation governance, adaptive governance, and systems thinking, ATGA integrates governance actors, decision rights, sustainability-oriented principles, adaptive processes, organisational learning, and feedback mechanisms. The architecture explains how sustainability is embedded in transformation decisions and how governance arrangements are reconfigured through feedback, learning, and institutional change. In doing so, the paper provides a recursive and multi-level governance mechanism for sustainable digital transformation.