Track description
n°22

Globalization and technological advancements have provided firms with novel opportunities for collaboration, prompting a shift from dyadic relationships to orchestrating, governing, and co-creating value within intricate value networks (Kapoor, 2018). This development is evident in global sourcing, where firms face novel challenges to navigate a multilateral web of stakeholders with different technological infrastructures and governance modes, aiming to increase their competitiveness (Krancher et al., 2022) while also ensuring sustainability and social justice (Nicholson et al., 2017, Kotlarsky et al., 2023). In response to these evolving dynamics, digital platforms have emerged as a popular orchestration mode, offering a modular infrastructure and governance model capable of integrating a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders and facilitating complex interactions (Parker et al., 2017).

These fundamental changes require organizations to rethink their approaches to information systems (IS) governance and sourcing in multiple ways. As more and more digital technologies are developed and assembled through platform ecosystems, IS management extends beyond corporate strategy, corporate governance, and the management of dyadic sourcing relationships to include platform strategies, platform governance (Hurni et al., 2019), and the management of multilateral sourcing relationships (Oshri et al., 2019). Cloud technologies, low-code platforms, and IT consumerization empower employees to source and design their own digital solutions, challenging existing notions of formal governance and control (Krancher et al., 2018; Wiener et al., 2019). Automation technologies ranging from Robotic Process Automation to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative AI (GenAI) may transform sourcing models such as the traditional lift-and-shift model of near shoring and offshoring. The surge of AI has also elevated the importance of data as an organizational resource, necessitating a deeper understanding of challenges and solutions in data governance and data sourcing (Markus, 2017; Newell& Marabelli, 2015; Tarafdar et al., 2017). Lastly, the evolving landscape of technical advancements and regulatory frameworks mandates IS management to critically reevaluate platform, sourcing, and governance structures to mitigate adverse effects such as algorithmic bias and the significant environmental impact of AI and other technologies and to increase their overall resilience (Floetgen etal., 2021).

As platform ecosystems evolve the need to embed responsible AI (Mikalef et al., 2022) into sourcing configurations, decisions and governance becomes crucial. Emerging technologies (including blockchain, distributed ledgers and smart contracts) have enabled innovative forms of decentralized governance, but they have also created new challenges around transparency, accountability and ethics (Beck et al., 2018; Gregory et al., 2021). At the same time, the growing complexity of multi-stakeholder ecosystems demands new approaches to ensuring fairness, trust, resilience, and regulatory compliance across distributed sourcing networks (Wareham et al., 2014). We therefore welcome research that examines how responsible AI can be integrated into sourcing configurations, governance mechanisms, and emerging regulatory frameworks to build more resilient, human-centric and ethically sound digital ecosystems. 

Complementing these themes, we also invite work on the changing relationships between platform owners and independent complementors. Boundary resources such as SDKs and APIs enable value co-creation, yet there are also challenges related to heightened dependency and lock-in, and sharpening power asymmetries within platform ecosystems (Eaton et al., 2015; Fürstenau et al., 2023; Jacobides et al., 2024). Emerging regulation—exemplified by the EU Digital Markets Act—now intervenes in these dynamics, raising fresh questions about how these changes shape value appropriation, complementor autonomy, and governance (Cutolo and Kenney, 2021; Huber et al., 2017; Hurni et al., 2022; Kude and Huber, forthcoming).

This track welcomes papers that improve our understanding of these and other challenges related to platforms, sourcing, and governance in the digital age. We welcome all types of research, including empirical, conceptual, design, and simulation research

• Platform design, governance, and strategy
• Intersection of sourcing and platforms, including how platforms transform traditional sourcing models and influence the selection and governance of sourcing vendors.
• The role of sourcing in digital platforms and technologies.
• Sourcing configurations in the digital age (multi-sourcing, plural sourcing, crowdsourcing, cloud sourcing, etc.).
• Sourcing ecosystems and digital platforms.
• Critical perspectives on platforms, governance, and sourcing.
• Algorithmic governance, management of algorithmic learning processes, management of autonomous agents.
• Impact of emerging technologies such as Generative AI on sourcing, platforms, and governance.
• Sustainability, social justice, accountability and digital resilience aspects of platforms, governance, and sourcing.
• Data governance, strategy, and data sourcing.

• Beck, R., Müller-Bloch, C., & King, J. L. (2018). Governance in the blockchain economy: A framework and research agenda. Journal of the association for information systems, 19(10), 1.
• Floetgen, R. J., Strauss, J., Weking, J., Hein, A., Urmetzer, F., Böhm, M., & Krcmar, H. (2021). Introducing platform ecosystem resilience: leveraging mobility platforms and their ecosystems for the new normal during COVID-19. European Journal of Information Systems, 30(3), 304-321.
• Gregory, R. W., Henfridsson, O., Kaganer, E., & Kyriakou, H. (2021). The role of artificial intelligence and data network effects for creating user value. Academy of management review, 46(3), 534-551.
• Hurni, T., Huber, T. L., Dibbern, J., & Krancher, O. (2021). Complementor dedication in platform ecosystems: rule adequacy and the moderating role of flexible and benevolent practices. European journal of information systems, 30(3), 237-260.
• Kapoor, R. (2018). Ecosystems: broadening the locus of value creation. Journal of Organization Design, 7(1), 12.
• Kotlarsky, J., Oshri, I., & Sekulic, N. (2023). Digital Sustainability in Information Systems Research: Conceptual Foundations and Future Directions. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(4), 936-952.
• Krancher, O., Oshri, I., Kotlarsky, J. and Dibbern, J., 2022. Bilateral, Collective, or Both? Formal Governance and Performance in Multisourcing. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 23(5), pp.1211-1234.
• Markus, M. L. (2017) “Datification, Organizational Strategy, and IS Research: What’s the Score?” Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(3), 233-241.
• Mikalef, P., Conboy, K., Lundström, J. E., & Popovič, A. (2022). Thinking responsibly about responsible AI and ‘the dark side’of AI. European Journal of Information Systems, 31(3), 257-268.
• Newell, S., & Marabelli, M. (2015) “Strategic Opportunities (and Challenges) of Algorithmic Decision- Making: A Call for Action on the Long-Term Societal Effects of ‘Datification’,” Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 24(1), 3-14.
• Nicholson, B., Babin, R., & Briggs, S. (2017). Exploring the effects of liminality on corporate social responsibility in inter-firm outsourcing relationships. Journal of Information Technology, 32(1), 47- 61.
• Oshri, I., Dibbern, J., Kotlarsky, J., & Krancher, O. (2019). An information processing view on joint vendor performance in multi-sourcing: the role of the guardian. Journal of Management Information Systems, 36(4), 1248-1283.
• Parker, G., Van Alstyne, M., & Jiang, X. (2017). Platform Ecosystems: How Developers Invert the Firm. MIS Quarterly, 41(1), 255-266.
• Wareham, J., Fox, P. B., & Cano Giner, J. L. (2014). Technology ecosystem governance. Organization science, 25(4), 1195-1215.

Recent years have witnessed a growing academic interest in how digital platforms and evolving sourcing models are transforming traditional approaches to information systems (IS) governance. Tracks at leading conferences such as ECIS, ICIS, and HICSS have addressed adjacent themes—including platform ecosystems, digital sourcing strategies, and IS governance in the context of cloud and AI technologies. Likewise, journals such as Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, and Journal of Strategic Information Systems have published increasing volumes of research on multilateral sourcing, platform-enabled collaboration, and data-driven governance. Yet, despite this momentum, there remains a need for a dedicated forum that brings together these interrelated but often siloed discussions. ECIS 2026, with its theme of “Digital Responsibility and Human-Centric Technologies,” provides a timely and suitable platform to explore how sourcing and governance must evolve in light of platformization, technological decentralization, and mounting societal demands for sustainability and resilience. This track seeks to connect and extend ongoing conversations by focusing on how organizations orchestrate, govern, and adapt digital infrastructures and sourcing configurations, while embracing digital responsibilities in an increasingly networked world.