Abstract
Purpose of the article: The article aims to explore the role of ethics within the context of digital technologies to provide additional insight into the phenomenon of digital transformation, and thus to contribute to a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges that companies encounter in a rapidly changing business environment. Specifically, the paper determines the role of ethics discussed in the most recent scientific literature in the context of digital transformation.Methodology/methods: An explorative approach to the analysis of scientific literature was adopted to answer the research question: What is known from the available scientific literature about the role of business ethics in the digital transformation of a company? The Scopus and ScienceDirect scientific databases were used for the literature search. The selected articles were assessed, grouped around the topics and analysed.Scientific aim: To investigate the challenges in the business ethics related to an increased impact of digital transformation on the company’s performance.Findings: 1) Business ethics ensures that digital technologies and the company’s decisions based on the information provided by these technologies are in line with the ethical considerations. 2) There is a demand for the increased organisational accountability for data management to ensure legal and ethical implications of data ownership. 3) Ethical decisions promote a long-run sustainable development of a company. 4) Ethical decision-making allows digitalisation solutions to be applied in accordance with the values and principles of employees.Conclusions: Ethical considerations provide deeper understanding of the impact of digital transformation at a higher level and in its long-term perspective. Limitations: the literature search was conducted in two scientific databases. Implications: the findings of this study form the basis for further research to investigate the interdependence between ethical responsibility of a company and technological advances towards achieving sustainable development.
Highlights
Digital transformation has become a subject of intense consideration among scientists who have studied this phenomenon from different perspectives and at different levels
The analysis revealed the following key topics discussed in the recent literature regarding business ethics and digital transformation: 1) ethical issues which are at risk as a result of digitalisation; 2) themes related to the role of business ethics in the context of digital transformation; and 3) resources to deal with ethical issues in the context of digital transformation
The exploratory analysis detected the ethical issues which might be at risk and the themes related to the role of business ethics in the context of digital transformation
Summary
Digital transformation has become a subject of intense consideration among scientists who have studied this phenomenon from different perspectives and at different levels. The primary focus of the research is the study of the impact of digital transformation at the organisational level; the investigation of the impact on individuals and society has been constantly growing. This area of research involves the study of the ethical context of digital transformation. The investigation of the role of ethics through the lens of digitalisation has become even more topical in the context of the United Nations and the European Union initiatives, namely the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the 2020s Europe’s Digital Decade
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