The transition toward socially and environmentally sustainability is increasingly intertwined with digital technological innovation. However, this transformation unfolds across multiple levels (e.g. micro, meso, and macro) each presenting distinct challenges and opportunities.

Micro Level: Firm-Level Dynamics

At the micro level, firms act as both creators and adopters of digital technologies that are paired with sustainability. With reference with environmental issues, a recent stream of literature provided evidence that artificial intelligence (AI) investments foster the adoption of environmental innovations (Montresor & Vezzani, 2023), and that the “twin” adoption (i.e. green and digital technologies) is shaped by human resources practices that involve, train and reward employees (Kotiranta et al., 2024; Antonioli et al., 2025). Internal barriers (e.g. managerial resistance, lack of strategic clarity, and financial resource constraints) often hinder the development and adoption of these innovations, especially for small and medium firms. Moreover, the benefits may vary greatly in terms of efficiency, financial returns, reputation or overall innovation. These issues raise critical questions: What firm-level factors are related to the creation or use of digital, environmental and social innovation? What goals are firms pursing (e.g. financial, reputational, efficiency-related) when creating or adopting digital, environmental and social innovation? What is the interplay among digital use and adoption, and environmental and social innovation within firms?

Meso Level: Ecosystem and Intermediary Roles

At the meso level, the learning processes and institutional context of locations play a pivotal role in shaping the creation and diffusion of digital technologies for sustainable practices (Bianchini et al., 2023; Cicerone et al., 2023; Damioli et al., 2024) and improved social development (Bianchi et al., 2025). The variety of actors, the pre-existence knowledge basis or the structural difficulties of cities, regions and ecosystems renders both digital and sustainable transitions uneven across the space, making it difficult to establish a unified agenda. With reference to digital- green twin transition, it has been found that the twin scientific knowledge in regions is shaped by pre-existing knowledge in both domains (Bianchini et al. 2024), and that digital technologies supporting green technologies differ significantly among rural and urban areas (Cattani et al. 2023) situated in both developed and developing countries. This raises important questions: How can diverse stakeholders align their efforts to support a coherent transition strategy? What governance mechanisms or collaborative models can foster synergy among actors with differing priorities? What are the interplays among digital, social and environmental trajectories within space?

Macro Level: Institutional and Policy Frameworks

At the macro level, regulators and policymakers, often under pressure from grassroots organizations, have addressed the growing environmental and social sustainability anxieties raised by increasingly power- and water-hungry AI infrastructures, spoiling unproblematic twin transition narratives. Supranational initiatives such as the European Green Deal, Africa-EU Green Energy Initiative, EU-Africa Global Gateway Investment Package and the Global Gateway initiatives for Latin America as long as national initiatives such as the Chinese “1+N” policy system or the Australian Net Zero Plan (Li et al., 2025; Hluszko et al., 2024; Muiruri et al., 2024; Ngwa, 2024) are all attempts for managing globally the environmental and social sustainability, however their effectiveness and coherence vary. Key questions include: How do global policy frameworks interact with local realities? What role does international cooperation play in managing environmental and social sustainability and concurrently reach the digitalization goals across territories in both developed and developing countries?

We particularly welcome submissions that present conceptual frameworks, empirical studies, or methodological contributions.