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Digital infrastructures result from individual yet interdependent systems evolving in relation to each other. This paper identifies three processes by which individual systems become embedded into digital infrastructures. The first is a parallel process, whereby systems become embedded independently of each other. The second is a competitive process, whereby systems compete for resources and attention and one system usually thrives while the other system loses importance. The third is a spanning process characterizing a situation of boundary-spanning between distinct parts of a digital infrastructure. The three processes, synthesized into a dynamic model of digital infrastructure embeddedness, offer clarity to the question how digital infrastructures evolve. They also provide insight into the emergence of three forms of digital infrastructures: silofied, regenerated, and unified. Reflecting an interconnection view, our research further facilitates an understanding of infrastructure inertia and its associated consequence. Criticality traps should be avoided by considering the right timing for system replacement in the light of growing embeddedness over time. Digital infrastructures are a result of individual yet interdependent systems evolving in relation to each other. In this paper, we identify three processes by which individual systems become embedded into digital infrastructures. First, there are parallel processes, in which systems become embedded independently of each other. Second, there are competitive processes, in which the embeddedness of one system increases at the expense of another. Finally, there are spanning processes, in which bridges are built between different embedded systems. The three processes, synthesized into a dynamic model of digital infrastructure embeddedness, offer much-needed conceptual clarity to the area of digital infrastructure evolution. They also provide insight into the emergence of three forms of digital infrastructures: silofied, regenerated, and unified. Reflecting an interconnection view, our research further facilitates an understanding of infrastructure inertia and its associated consequence.

Being able to understand and characterize the digital infrastructure development (DID) process has become even more pressing today due to the rapid advent and implementation of new digital infrastructure (DI) in organizations as well as since the COVID-19 crisis. While information systems (IS) research has begun to recognize the institutional nature of such digital infrastructures, there remains a gap in our understanding of how such developments unfold from an institutional perspective. Through our field study of a digital infrastructure development project involving the implementation of an enterprise-wide electronic medical record system at a large US medical facility, we show how the tensions in the DID process were linked to the institutional work these organizational actors performed when they attempted to disrupt and protect the hospital’s institutional arrangement. We introduce the “digital infrastructuring work” concept to describe the combinations of digital object work, DI relational, and DI symbolic work enacted during DID. Specifically, digital object work reveals how material institutional work is directed at multiple DI elements. Our findings also highlight how organizational actors combine DI relational work and DI symbolic work with digital object work to shape the overall DI. As such, our study shows how organizational actors go beyond symbolic and discursive forms of institutional work, and digital object work in particular, to achieve DID outcomes. Future research could explore digital infrastructuring work in different organizational and technological settings.

This paper attempts to explore the overall impact of its rural digitization process on agricultural carbon emissions and non-point source pollution in the context of China. By doing so, we analyze whether digitization has an impact on agricultural pollution reduction, analyze its conductive mechanism, and draw its policy implications. To this end, the paper innovatively incorporates new digital infrastructure and urbanization level into of the concept of agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) and adopts the SBM-DEA model, entropy weighting method, and mixed regression to analyze, based on the sample data of the 30 provinces of China from 2011 to 2020. The results indicate that: (1) new digital infrastructure has a significant contribution to the improvement of AEE of China; (2) both information infrastructure and integration infrastructure have a significant positive effect on AEE, and the effect of information infrastructure is more effective, but there is an inverted “U”-shaped relationship between innovation infrastructure and AEE level; (3) the moderating effect mechanism suggests that the level of urbanization reinforces the contribution of new digital infrastructure to AEE; and (4) the heterogeneity test shows that the effect of new digital infrastructure on AEE is more significant in regions with well-developed traditional transportation facilities and in periods when the government pays more attention to agricultural ecological issues. The above results also provide rich insights for China and other similar developing countries on how to balance the agriculture digitization and AEE.

This paper uses the data of Chinese cities and A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022 and utilizes the implementation of Broadband China as a quasi-natural experiment to assess the impact of digital infrastructure construction, as exemplified by Broadband China, on enterprise carbon emissions. By applying the difference-in-differences method, the findings indicate that developing digital infrastructure can help reduce carbon emissions in enterprises. This reduction is achieved primarily by improving the efficiency of energy utilization in urban areas and enhancing corporate green technological innovation. Additionally, the impact of digital infrastructure on lowering carbon emissions varies by corporation and region.

In this study, we demonstrate the possibility to protect, with Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), a critical infrastructure as the fiber-based one used for time and frequency (TF) dissemination service. The proposed technique allows to disseminate secure and precise TF signals between two fiber-optic-connected locations, on a critical infrastructure, using both QKD and White Rabbit technique. This secure exchange enables the secret sharing of time information between two parties, allowing the synchronization of distant clocks with a stability of at 1 s, traceable to the Italian time scale. When encrypted, the time signals provide no useful information to a third party regarding the synchronization status, resulting in a time stability degraded by two orders of magnitude.

Accelerating the construction of new digital infrastructure (NDI) is a critical measure for enhancing resource allocation efficiency and promoting high‐quality economic development. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2011–2020, this paper empirically examines the impact of NDI on regional resource misallocation. The results reveal that NDI significantly exacerbates labor misallocation across regions while alleviating capital misallocation. These findings remain robust across multiple robustness checks and instrumental variable estimations. Regional analysis further demonstrates that the exacerbating effect on labor misallocation is more pronounced in the eastern and central regions, whereas the alleviating effect on capital misallocation is observed only in the western region. Extended analysis indicates that higher levels of human capital can mitigate the labor misallocation induced by NDI. Additionally, spatial spillover analysis shows that NDI improves labor allocation in neighboring regions but worsens capital allocation in those areas, and these spatial spillover effects exhibit sectoral heterogeneity. These findings provide important policy implications for maximizing the effectiveness of NDI in optimizing resource allocation.

Radical shifts in large information technology programmes or digital infrastructures are unusual, but they do occur, usually as a consequence of problems or misalignment. What we know less about is the role of discourse in these shifts. Our interest in this article is to investigate the role of discourse when digitalisation programmes encounter problems. Building on Foucault’s theory of discourse, our research question is: what is the role of discourse in the transformation of digital infrastructures? Our research approach is a critical realist case study, discussing three cases from eHealth innovation. We use Foucault’s archaeological methodology to identify the emerging discursive formations when a programme encounters difficulties. This enables us to analyse the causal relationship between discursive formations and other mechanisms in the infrastructure. We offer two contributions: first, we outline a framework to understand the role of discursive formations in digital transformation; second, we propose a set of configurations to explain how contextual factors and causal mechanisms contingently lead to the transformation of a digital infrastructure.

Prior research on the evolution of digital infrastructure has paid considerable attention to effective strategies for resolving contradictory tensions, yet what we still do not understand is the role of higher-level organizational capabilities that help balance the contradictory tensions that emerge during this evolution. In addressing this gap, two related questions guided our investigation: (1) How do organizations experience and resolve contradictory tensions throughout the evolution of digital infrastructure? and (2) What can we learn about the organizational capabilities that drive strategic actions in resolving these contradictory tensions? We approach these questions using an in-depth case study at RE/MAX LLC, a global real estate franchise. Based on our findings, we propose a theoretical model of digital infrastructure ambidexterity. The model recognizes three pairs of capabilities (identifying and germinating, expanding and legitimizing, and augmenting and implanting) and two supporting factors (leadership and structure) that are key to resolving contradictory tensions during this evolution. This study responds to a recent research call for dynamic process perspectives at multiple levels of analysis. We discuss the implications of this model for research and practice and offer observations for future research.

In the context of global energy transition and climate change, energy system resilience has become critical for countries worldwide. While green digital infrastructure—emerging from the integration of digitalization and low-carbon development—shows theoretical potential to strengthen energy resilience, empirical evidence remains limited. This study utilizes China’s 2015 Green Data Center Pilot Policy as a quasi-natural experiment to examine this relationship through comprehensive panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2011–2021. We developed an integrated energy resilience evaluation framework across four dimensions: economic resilience, engineering resilience, resource resilience, and ecological resilience, applying the CRITIC method to determine objective indicator weights. Our difference-in-differences analysis demonstrates that green digital infrastructure significantly enhances regional energy resilience, with pilot regions experiencing a 2.83% improvement compared to non-pilot areas. This impact shows regional heterogeneity, with stronger effects in economically developed areas with better digital foundations. We identify two primary mechanisms through which green digital infrastructure influences energy resilience: industrial structure optimization (particularly through service industry growth) and enhanced innovation capacity. These findings provide robust empirical support for green digital infrastructure’s role in strengthening energy system stability and adaptability, offering valuable policy insights for promoting both digitalization and low-carbon transition under global climate governance.

This study investigates the impact of digital capabilities (DC) on building resilient supply chains in China’s electric vehicle (EV) industry. As the complexity of the EV sector continues to grow, improving supply chain resilience (SCR) is essential for sustaining long-term growth and maintaining competitiveness. This research focuses on how visibility and collaboration, supported by DC, contribute to the development of SCR. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), data from 399 Chinese EV supply chain enterprises were analyzed to examine the moderating effects of DC and their sub-dimensions—digital infrastructure capability, digital analytics capability, and strategic support capability—on the relationships between visibility, collaboration, and resilience. The results reveal that both visibility and collaboration significantly and positively influence resilience, with visibility having the strongest impact. Furthermore, digital analytics capability enhances the positive effect of collaboration on resilience, while overall DC and other dimensions, such as digital infrastructure and strategic support capabilities, show limited impact. The findings also underscore that digital infrastructure capability plays a vital role in amplifying the impact of visibility on resilience. Consequently, EV supply chain enterprises are encouraged to invest continuously in digital infrastructure and analytics capabilities to strengthen their SCR.