Towards a Model for Discourse Ethics-based Digital Business Strategy Development

Abstract: We develop a decision-making process model that implements generic discourse ethics and business ethics proposals specifically for ethical digital business strategy (DBS) development. The model’s objective is to answer the question how DBS initiatives – with the potential to affect the wider society – can be developed and justified considering economic, ecological and social criteria, based on consensus among the relevant stakeholders. We evaluate the model by examining two past DBS initiatives that were reported in the media as being controversial because of a lack of stakeholder consensus. With the model, we contribute a pragmatization of the business and discourse ethics literature for the IS discipline that covers the time before actual IS design and development decisions take place. Business and IT executives in practice can draw on the model to guide their DBS processes along ethical lines.