Projects / Programmes
Digitalization as Driving Force for Sustainability of Individuals, Organizations, and Society
January 1, 2019
- December 31, 2022
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.02.02 |
Social sciences |
Economics |
Business sciences |
| 2.07.07 |
Engineering sciences and technologies |
Computer science and informatics |
Intelligent systems - software |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S189 |
Social sciences |
Organizational science |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.02 |
Social Sciences |
Economics and Business |
| 1.02 |
Natural Sciences |
Computer and information sciences |
Digitalization, sustainability, sharing economy, ethics, digital capabilities, future capabilities, future jobs
Researchers (23)
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Digitalization, broadly defined as the integration of digital technologies into everyday life, offers enormous opportunities for value creation, inclusive society and sustainable development. In fact, digitalization and sustainability are two key challenges of the humanity. They are major topics addressed within UN Millennium Development Goals and EU 2020 development strategy and they attract significant attention in academic research globally. The main challenge in academia is to provide practical solutions that will help individuals and business to transform towards digital, resource efficient and sustainable society.
The proposed research program aims to create impact through improved understanding how different stakeholders can develop appropriate digital capabilities to fully leverage on the opportunities of digitalization in enabling value creation, inclusive society, and sustainable development. Within this aim, we identify four key themes that frame our research, each with its own objectives:
1) Digitalization for flexible sustainable sharing economy and society
Objective: To identify psychological, sociological, economic and environmental impacts of digital sharing economy and society on global value creation and sustainability.
2) Digitalization, jobs, and future of work
Objective: To determine the definition and meaning of future jobs and work and to foster the skills and capabilities required for workers to flourish in an algorithmically-mediated work environment.
3) Technologies and management practices supporting digitalization in organizations
Objective: To examine how organizations can develop appropriate digital and managerial capabilities to support and embrace the digitalization process.
4) Digitalization, ethics, dysfunctional behavior and pro-environmental behavior
Objective: To develop self-concept and self-interest mechanisms that can efficiently trigger ethical, functional and ecologically sustainable behavior of humans.
Findings resulting from this research program will have major theoretical and practical implications. Theoretical contribution will focus on challenging and modifying current prevalent theories explaining the major divers and impacts of digitalization and sustainable development. Our goal is to contribute to the body of knowledge concerning the process of transformation into a smart, resource efficient and inclusive society. Research program will also endeavor to develop practical solutions that can be easily implemented by the industry and society in order to promote safe and secure digital development along with resource efficient, sustainable and socially inclusive growth.
Significance for science
The transformation towards a digital world is in full swing and continues to pick up pace. Naturally, this development is also having a major impact on science, the economy and broader society. Digitalization is everywhere, and the scientific community needs to solidify its leading role in this area moving forward.
The proposed research program aims to secure participating institutions’ leading position in the field of human-centered IT. In our view, the four research themes incorporated in this program offer enormous opportunities with the potential for national and global impact. These themes range from flexible sustainable sharing economy and future of work to technology/management practices and ethics and individual behavior.
Overall, our research is focused in delivering a cutting-edge knowledge in the field of adopting the society, organizations and individuals to the new digital world. Project search for ways to serve the public interest through our non-partisan expertise, enabling both policymakers and company executives to foster a sustainable digital environment in an ethical manner while preparing the next generation for the workplaces of the future. The primary contribution of the program will be transforming the field of research by engaging in novel knowledge production on the above themes in order to generate actionable and targeted recommendations and best practices.
The proposed research is a cross-cutting program through nearly all of the routes of the strategic initiatives Digital Slovenia 2020, Vision of Slovenia 2050, and the Digital Agenda for Europe. In this effort, the two research organizations from University of Ljubljana are actively taking the lead on this subject. The ambition of the program group resides in its highly multi-disciplinary approach, which leverages insights from a business/management, psychological, technological, sociological, economics and policy perspectives to address how digitalization can be leveraged for sustainable and socially inclusive growth. In order to secure a leading global position, Slovenia will have to develop new insights and solutions to digital issues through pioneering research and experimentation. This will attract national and international talent, investment, technology development, enterprise and collaboration. Research will thus contribute to broader society at a social, technological, and economic level.
Significance for the country
Slovenia is well advanced with pioneering digital innovations and has built up strong expertise on information technology and on creativity. That affords a breeding ground for new solutions and for the exploration of societal implications. Moreover, Slovenia is often an innovator and pioneer in social policy and regulation. Attention for societal challenges, agile regulation and policy making as well as courage to policy innovation make Slovenia an ideal breeding ground for pioneering solutions.
Within EU and Slovenia several strategic initiatives exist that emphasize a broader relevance of digitalization for sustainable development of individuals, organizations, and society:
the Digital Agenda for Europe, with the general objective to ensure that the uniform digital market results in lasting economic and social advantages,
the Digital Slovenia 2020, which specifies strategic directions of the digitalization of society and business, which will form the foundations of development projects by priority areas of the Strategy of Smart Specialization. It foresees measures for harnessing the social and economic potential of IT and the internet for digital growth, focusing on digital infrastructure, intense use of IT and the internet, cyber security and an inclusive information society, and
the Vision of Slovenia 2050, which serves as a guide for national development strategy.
The proposed research program will assist Slovenia’s socio-economic and cultural development by:
providing improved and new methods for data analysis and insights in business and public administration;
providing a framework and best practices for digital technology implementation in business and public sector (e.g. key success factors of digital innovation implementation and technology acceptance among end-users);
delivering insights and best practices on how digitalization is reshaping business models, how companies build brands and products, communicate, and provide services to their customers;
provide an understanding how digitalization changes jobs and to generate actionable and targeted recommendations for organizations;
inform policy makers about setting policy and regulations and advise on how to encourage digital activities that benefit companies and society
contributing to the advancement and optimization of public administrative services through new and improved analytical methods for aggregating vast volumes of diversified data into a single digital platform;
contributing to health promotion and the optimization of healthcare services and costs while providing access to enriched health knowledge for improved health-related decisions;
assisting the realization of a safe, secure living environment through improving the understanding of antecedents and consequences of using digital technologies for personal identification in public and commercial facilities;
supporting human resource development by addressing the social effects of digital transformation, such as automation and robotization, within the labor market by executing research and innovation which can contribute to promoting social inclusion, fairness, and well-being;
by addressing the socioeconomic effects of increasing adoption of artificial intelligence, algorithmic management, and smart automated systems within the labor market;
increasing the awareness of the importance of European digitized heritage and digital culture and its potential in the digital age;
tackling the challenges of reduction of negative environmental impacts through digitally-supported changes of individual behavior.
Most important scientific results
Interim report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Interim report
