This study investigates the barriers and drivers of digital transformation within the European Union's (EU) Agencies, focusing on one of the European Commission’s (EC) decentralised agencies. As digital technologies evolve rapidly, EU agencies face unique challenges and opportunities in integrating emerging technologies into their operations. The research employs a qualitative case study utilising semi-structured interviews to gather rich, detailed insights. The findings reveal that strategic alignment, leadership commitment, and technological infrastructure significantly influence the success of digital transformation initiatives. However, challenges such as resistance to change, regulatory constraints, and resource limitations determine the pace and effectiveness of transformation efforts. This research contributes to further our understanding of digital transformation in the public sector and offers practical insights for EU agencies. By highlighting the EU agency's specific conditions, the study provides a foundation for policy and strategy development to enhance digital capabilities across the European public sector. The findings also further our understanding of the complexities of managing digital transformation within highly regulated environments like the EU, offering a roadmap for future research and practice in the public sector.

Digital transformation promises strategic and operational benefits for organisations regardless of size, sector, or industry. However, its antecedents and value realisation mechanisms are highly context-dependent, influenced by factors within and beyond an organisation. While the focus of prior digital transformation studies seems to be on for-profit and relatively well in public organisations, the challenges for

non-profit organisations (NPOs) remain under-investigated. Based on a systematic literature review and a case study in one Swedish NPO, this study reveals digital transformation barriers within NPOs. The barriers identified through thematic analysis encompass internal and external

environmental factors grounded in recent digital transformation frameworks. The study contributes to the literature on digital transformation

specific to NPOs. Practitioners can also use these insights to inform the development of robust strategies and the effective implementation of their digital transformation initiatives.

Research suggests that the anticipated benefits of digital transformation are realised when organisations demonstrate dynamic capabilities—the ability to integrate, adapt, and reconfigure both internal and external resources. These capabilities enable organisations to meet the demands of today's dynamic technological, political, and business environment. One such capability is the extent to which employees can anticipate and effectively respond to significant internal and external changes. This phenomenon, referred to as workforce agility, has been recognised as a key determinant of how digital transformation strategies are planned and appropriately executed. However, a closer examination of the existing literature reveals that the relationship between workforce agility and digital transformation remains largely unexplored, particularly within the public sector context. Thus, this study set out to contribute to the limited literature on public sector digital transformation by focusing on organisational agility and two related constructs—organisational structure and transformational leadership. Employing PLS-SEM analysis on data from 392 public sector respondents, the findings offer empirical support for the significant direct influence of workforce agility and organisational structure in driving successful digital transformation. The results confirm that well-defined yet flexible organisational structures support the adoption of digital technologies and foster workforce agility, which in turn facilitates digital transformation. Furthermore, the study reveals that transformational leadership significantly strengthens the positive impact of workforce agility on digital transformation, highlighting its role in cultivating an environment where employees actively contribute to digital initiatives. Interestingly, however, the moderating effect of transformational leadership on the direct relationship between organisational structure and digital transformation was not statistically significant, suggesting that a robust organisational structure may provide a sufficient foundation for digital transformation, potentially minimising the additional direct influence of leadership on this specific link. The study's contributions to both research and practice are presented, offering nuanced insights into the interplay of structure, agility, and leadership in public sector digital transformation.

The use of emerging digital technologies in the healthcare industry has been one of the developments embraced by most national governments and regional bodies, including the European Commission. Long-term plans were drafted to guide the industry-wide adoption of such technologies, including electronic healthcare management systems and applications like telesurgery. These plans recognise the daunting nature of digital transformation and the overwhelming organisational changes needed to realise the anticipated benefits. Unfortunately, in 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 brought unprecedented urgency to rapidly adopt digital technologies, disrupting routines and existing work processes. This phenomenology study, based on data collected through interviews with nurses and medical doctors, aims to show how this forced digital transformation turned out and which lessons could be taken. The findings indicate that the most significant of the changes, from physical consultations to telemedicine, was embraced readily by patients, while it was viewed unfavourably by some of the healthcare providers. However, the attitude of healthcare providers towards the use of digital technologies has improved since the pandemic. On the other hand, the rapid adoption of digital technologies has also revealed challenges that need to be overcome to realise the full benefits of the transformation. Among others, these challenges include competent workforce shortages and resistance to change.

The increasing adoption of digital technologies in education has brought interactive online learning to the fore. This study examines the phenomenon within the context of Information Systems (IS) education. IS pedagogy emphasises collaboration, real-world case studies, and access to enterprise-level software, which often brings unique challenges to online learning environments. Semi-structured interviews with seventeen IS students were used as a primary data source, supplemented by an online survey questionnaire and course evaluations. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed technological, pedagogical (instructor-related) and individual factors influencing students' student satisfaction and perceived value, including active participation from educators and peers, access to diverse resources on platforms, collaborative group work, instant feedback, clear guidelines, information overload, user-friendliness of platforms, uneven peer engagement, and engaging activities. The findings provide practical insights for educators and instructional designers to enhance online learning environments and better align IS education with industry needs.

While digital transformation has offered opportunities to improve public service delivery, including healthcare, it also inadvertently facilitated the spread of misinformation. This study explores the factors contributing to and exacerbating health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia and Liberia, two developing countries with diverse socio-cultural backgrounds. This study investigates the complex interplay of technological, socio-cultural, and political factors that influenced the creation, dissemination, and amplification of misinformation in these contexts. Qualitative data collected through 35 interviews with key stakeholders, including health communicators, policy consultants, medical professionals, journalists, and community leaders, were thematically analysed. The findings reveal 12 key factors, grouped into three categories, that contributed to the creation and spread of misinformation: the abundance of open data (i.e., open public health information), democratised content creation, weakened gatekeepers, echo chambers, anonymity on digital platforms, trust in government institutions, cultural beliefs, community dynamics, language barriers, political polarisation, limited government capacity, and historical factors. Drawing on these findings and country-specific nuances, the study proposes tailored strategies and interventions to combat health misinformation and mitigate its negative consequences in Ethiopia and Liberia.

This study explores the implementation and adoption of emergency information systems across various government agencies, applying the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) model to assess the public value generated by these technologies. A comprehensive analysis of several projects was conducted to reveal the factors driving the successful adoption and sustained use of innovative technologies in crisis management. The findings indicated that organisations consistently retained these systems beyond the initial emergency phase, signifying their successful diffusion and integration. Agencies reported high confidence in the new systems, citing their effectiveness in meeting critical needs and addressing challenges during crises. The study identified key factors that facilitated successful diffusion, including perceived relative advantage, compatibility with organisational processes, ease of use, and observable stakeholder benefits. Additionally, the research examined multiple dimensions of public value creation, such as enhanced operational efficiency, improved decision-making, greater transparency, and strengthened inter-agency collaboration. By highlighting the significant public value generated by these systems, the study contributes important insights to the growing literature on technology adoption in public sector crisis management and underscores the potential for innovative systems to deliver lasting impacts beyond immediate emergency response.

The increasing digital transformation in public organisations has facilitated smooth and bidirectional communication with stakeholders, enhancing the dissemination and reception of critical health information. However, emerging digital technologies have also exacerbated the spread of misinformation. Researchers and practitioners recognise misinformation as an obstacle undermining public health work during the pandemic, particularly in countries with fragile healthcare infrastructures. This study examines socio-cultural factors influencing health misinformation in Ethiopia and Liberia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using an online survey of 211 experts and the PLS-SEM analysis technique, we found that mistrust in institutions, cultural beliefs, community dynamics, and language barriers significantly contribute to the spread of misinformation. Furthermore, health literacy was found to mitigate the impact of misinformation, except in instances involving language barriers. The findings provide insights for developing contextually relevant strategies to combat misinformation in developing countries with fragile healthcare systems.

Inspired by the success of organisations in the private sector, public organisations turned to customer relationship management (CRM) tools to learn about various citizen groups and their particular needs. Recently, AI-driven CRM (also referred to as AI-CRM) has increasingly gained recognition as a revolutionary solution for improving the relationship between organisations and their customers—by automating routines, improving segmentation and prioritisation, providing virtual assistance, and guiding employees. However, various challenges were found to hinder the adoption of the technology and the realisation of the anticipated benefits of AI-CRM in the public sector. This study explores AI-CRM adoption and integration with existing systems at the Ministry of Labour of Israel. Based on the review of the extant literature and in-depth interviews with selected experts in various units, we present the expected results and contributions of the ongoing study.

Digital transformation—the application of emerging technologies to improve organisations’ operations, resulting in new business models (and value propositions)—has attracted the attention of organisations across sectors and industries. Within the public sector, digital transformation enabled by such emerging technologies as artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining recognition as a means of improving effectiveness and efficiency as well as the creation of public value. However, only a few studies have explored the extent to which AI-driven digital transformation contributes to public value creation and the factors determining adoption of the technology in the public sector. The thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews from respondents in Swedish Municipalities reveals three interesting findings—(1) there is a positive but cautious trend in increased AI adoption in the public sector, (2) AI-driven digital transformation has resulted in improved efficiency in process automation and cost-saving but limited holistic public value creation, and (3) technological, organisational, and external or environmental issues hinder the adoption of AI in the public sector.