How organizations collaborate in the Digital Transformation towards Sustainability

Digital transformation is already changing and improving our society towards sustainable development. However, this process is complex and often requires collaborative efforts between organizations. To better understand how organizations collaborate in the digital transformation towards sustainability, we present a case study of digital transformation in Denmark’s district heating. Using the theory of Process Multiplicity that explains how a single process can potentially unfold in many ways, we report how private and public companies have collaborated over two years in their digital transformation. Our analysis identifies three processes that explain how these organizations successfully collaborate by 1) establishing ownership of problematic situations, 2) compromising on ideal problem-solving, and 3) setting boundaries in problem-solving. We conclude the paper by discussing how unfolding the collaboration between organizations can nuance our understanding of collaboration in digital transformation in IS research.