special track details

Balancing Digital Transformation and Sustainability: A Knowledge Management Perspective for Leading the Twin Transition

Description

Twin Transition is associated with the simultaneous achievement transition by firms and organizations of the objectives of digital transformation and green (Myshko, et al., 2024; Mele, et al., 2025). Twin Transition relies on the ambitious goals of creating a sustainable future through the digital technologies as drivers for the growth and competitiveness (EC, 2020). This means demonstrating how beyond the benefits of efficiency and accuracy, digital technologies support the solution of societal challenges for generating a positive impact on society and stakeholders (Dal Mas et al., 2023). As intertwined revolution (Rehman, et al., 2023, pg.1), the Twin Transition impacts firms by requiring strategic and organizational changes. In affording the challenges associated with such a “digitally-enabled sustainable transition” (Spaltini et al., 2024), firms are involved in a process of radical transformation of their value chains and business models to achieve efficiency and flexibility (Myshko et al., 2024; Montresor & Vezzani, 2023) as well as in facing barriers and obstacles (Spaltini et al., 2024).  In the actual debate on digital transformation and more recently on artificial intelligence, a further challenging issue arises to make them sustainable in their environmental and social implications and opportunities (Mäkitie, et al., 2023). In the same direction, the larger attention reserved by institutions and businesses to the ONU Agenda for 2023 with its Sustainable Development Goals highlights the need to embrace green models of production, distribution, and consumption. In pursuing a Twin Transition, firms are called to embrace innovation strategies able to promote sustainability-oriented innovation by mixing economic, environmental, and social goals (Del Vecchio, et al., 2025; Urbinati, et al., 2022; Cillo et al., 2019). This requires intentional changes impacting on firm’s philosophy and values, as well as to its products, processes, business, and organizational model, and leading the creation of social and environmental value in addition to economic returns. Accordingly, the conception and implementation of a Twin Transition are associated with different patterns and challenges (Spaltini et al., 2024). In the meantime, this requires new knowledge and skills, new forms and locus of collaboration within the organizations and across industries, and leads to sustainable use of organizational resources (Tabrizi et al., 2019; Secundo et al., 2022). The interplay between Digital Transformation and Sustainability sees entrepreneurs and managers called to develop and implement ideas and knowledge able to leverage on technical know-how, customers and market’s needs, competitive strategies, and organizational knowledge (Nambisan, 2017; Chiaroni et al., 2021). The challenge for firms is to create value from growing amounts of data and apply knowledge and technology-based solutions to face major challenges and assure the achievement of sustainable growth (Schiuma, et al., 2022). The translation of knowledge into innovation dynamics supporting the Twin Transition can take many different forms, and it is important for any firm, from startups to SMEs and large organizations, in any industry and economic sector, involving strategic, managerial, organizational, and operational aspects. Accordingly, the comprehension of the implications and opportunities of Twin Transition results still far from full comprehension. It remains limited to the connection between digitalization and sustainability by highlighting the need for further investigations and works of contextualization of their deeper linkage and mutual implications (Mäkitie, et al., 2023). Framed in the above premises, this special track calls for contributions at the intersection of the grand challenges of digital transformation and sustainability, with a specific focus on knowledge management as lens for leading such complex challenges. Conceptual, empirical, and review papers are welcome.

Keywords
Twin Transition, Digital Transformation, Sustainability, Knowledge Management, Green Transition
Organizers
Pasquale Del Vecchio, University LUM, Casamassima-Bari, Italy
Gioconda Mele, University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Piera Centobelli, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Roberto Cerchione, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy

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