Cyber incidents and geopolitical conflicts underpin how strongly companies are afected by risks to the IT ecosystem. This work contributes to the resolution of proposing a new model for Digital Sovereignty (DS)* from the perspective of IT consultancy. We present the results of expert interviews of IT consultants who have already dealt with the topic of DS. Furthermore, we analyze the current state of the literature regarding DS models. The three most important and new factors are (1) communication within an organization, (2) adapting the service portfolio, and (3) considering usability. The advanced model with weighted factors can be used as a strategic instrument by companies that want to strengthen their DS.
an IT-consultancy perspective that guides companies to increase their level of DS. Two research questions guided our approach: RQ1: Based on best practices from IT consultants, what factors should companies consider when strengthening their Digital Sovereignty? RQ2: What is their respective significance?
This work relates to a qualitative interview study [
Figure 2 depicts the model of Digital Sovereignty with the three dimensions of Cross-Cutting Topics, Internal Company Topics, and External Company Topics as result of iteration 1 and 2.
Results of the data generation and data analysis [iteration 1]: The contents of the interviews with the IT consultants were extracted and assigned to topic areas (consider sustainability,...). Results of semi-conducted interviews and data analysis [iteration 2]: 18 IT consultants were asked to evaluate the factors. The mean value for each topic was determined from the results, added behind the topic area, and included in the model as pie charts.
Results of the literature review and theory reference: The topic areas from the interviews
were compared with models of DS: Herlo et al. [
Results from the clustering: Three diferent clusters were identified: External Company Topics, Internal Company Topics, Cross-Cutting Topics. These were assigned to one axis in the model. The topics generated from the interviews with the IT-consultants (see point 1) were mapped onto one of the clusters and plotted on the respective axes.
This work enriches the current state of research by an extensive model that weighs factors of DS from the perspective of IT consultancy, empirically supporting already mentioned layers in models for DS and showing new factors. The presented model gives companies an orientation on what to consider if they want to become digitally more sovereign. Other consulting papers have primarily based their research on EU or customer perspective. This paper ofers a wider view by describing and visualizing best practices and assessments of IT consultants. The model was developed in 2023, during the war between Russia and Ukraine. These circumstances may influence the data. It is deliberately limited to the economic debate of DS. Moreover, it takes the perspective of Germany. Other countries have completely diferent regulations and industrial structures. China and the US have diferent understandings of DS. Other limitations are method inherent: we can not exclude bias, and a diferent set of interview partners might lead to diferent results. The trend is increasing towards measuring trusted partners and relying on consulting expertise to fulfill the regulatory requirements of new guidelines such as the EU NIS 2016/1148. This trend is currently not expected to shift. Our next steps include refinement by looking at the interdependence between the factors and validation in consulting projects.
We thank our partners, fellow researchers, all study participants, and the project LIONS. LIONS is funded by dtec.bw of the Digitalization and Technology Research Center of the Bundeswehr ifnanced by the European Union, NextGenerationEU.