Digital Eco-Systems, Change, and Organising

In digital ecosystems, connected objects interact with each other and humans to create dynamic and adaptive environments. The proliferation of devices beyond personal computers and mobile phones has given rise to smart entities such as smart homes, factories, and cities. These interconnected systems exhibit complex behaviours and blurring boundaries between organizational and institutional spheres, thus raising challenges for research and practice. This chapter focuses on the definition and origin of the concept of digital ecosystems in the information systems, ecology, and economics literature and introduces the book’s contributions to the research in this domain: 22 chapters that provide an interdisciplinary and multi-focal perspective on this topic. The chapters address different aspects of digital ecosystems, including their role in agrifood systems, the design and analysis of specific artefacts for solving wicked problems, and environmental and societal implications.