Systems

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance is vital for international megaprojects, but current firm-level research ignores the role of digital capabilities in project delivery. Based on dynamic capability theory, this paper examines how the combinations of digital capabilities (sensing, analysis, connecting, integration, and agility) jointly shape the project-level ESG performance of megaprojects. By combining fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and case study methods and using multi-source text data from 35 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) megaprojects, an evaluation framework is developed to investigate effective causal paths. The results show that no single digital capability constitutes a necessary condition for high ESG performance. Instead, high performance is achieved through equifinality driven by non-redundant capability combinations. Specifically, analysis-oriented configurations support environmental performance through evidence-based decision-making. Sensing-oriented configurations are the basis of social performance to identify stakeholder risks. Connecting- and agility-oriented configurations improve governance performance by helping cross-organizational coordination. Suggestions are provided for practitioners, including aligning digital investment with specific ESG priorities, developing complementary capability configurations that match project governance priorities, and strengthening digital information sharing and adaptive response. This study helps researchers and practitioners understand the configurational effects of digital capabilities on the ESG of international megaprojects.

Coding agents increasingly participate in software development, but submitting an implementation does not settle whether work is complete. This qualitative process comparison examines 30 diagnostic pull requests from 22 GitHub repositories within a frame of 1782 contributions from 120 repositories. Manual screening found substantive contestation in 516 frame contributions (29.0%). The analysis draws on public discussions, reviews, commits, tests, and linked artifacts to trace how participants address unmet or unproven requirements. Using acceptance boundary as a sensitizing distinction, the analysis connects conditions stated in review to their enactment in evaluation artifacts and subsequent revision. Participants may retain requirements for repair, delimit a smaller acceptable increment, pursue an alternative implementation, or terminate an approach. Tests enact these decisions through repair, authorized exclusion, and restoration. In sqruff, issue closure accompanied partial repair and renewed deferral; a subsequent rollback reversed the accepted changes. Integration, issue closure, and requirement satisfaction therefore represent distinct accomplishments. The process model identifies conditional, overlapping paths connecting local acceptance to continuing work. It explains collaborative completion in agent-associated software development and shows how documented interface constraints and human intervention shape subsequent work.

Digital transformation is a strategic priority across care-intensive service sectors, yet many organisations struggle to realise its intended benefits. Existing research often examines technological, organisational, and environmental barriers separately, offering limited insight into their interconnections within organisational systems. Drawing on Systems Theory and Sociotechnical Systems (STS) Theory, this study investigates digital transformation among small and medium providers within Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Using an interpretive qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 participants from 15 distinct NDIS provider organisations in Sydney, Australia, followed by reflexive thematic analysis and systems-oriented interpretation. Participants described recurring associations among technological misalignment, fragmented software, adaptive workarounds, increased administrative demands, and constraints on organisational capacity for digital improvement, with regulatory and resource pressures interacting with these technological and organisational conditions. Building on these cross-sectional patterns, this study develops Recursive Capability Constriction (RCC), a systems-based conceptual framework that proposes how technological misalignment, compensatory adaptation, administrative expansion, and constrained organisational capability for digital improvement may become interconnected through reinforcing relationships. Rather than representing an inevitable or empirically established causal sequence, RCC provides a conditional explanation of how local adaptations may become associated with constraints on subsequent digital improvement. By shifting attention from isolated implementation barriers to interconnected sociotechnical relationships, RCC extends digital transformation research and provides practical guidance for managing digital change in regulated care environments.