Managing change in a dominant infrastructure for digital identification

Abstract

Enterprise information systems and applications no longer exist as stand-alone entities, but instead, they interact with other information systems inside and outside the company boundaries. The success of many businesses is dependent on their ability to leverage the innovations coming from the outside, which are often global, remote and dynamic. The challenge attributed to industry platforms is that when they become dominant, integration with them is critical to the thriving of smaller, non-focal organizations.This thesis studies the case of a digital identity management (IdM) platform as an example of a dominant digital infrastructure. IdM is a crucial component in any software-based service that needs to identify, authenticate and authorize the access of its users and it is an important step towards the successful advancement of digital services in a society. The goal of this thesis is to identify the factors that affect the dynamic phenomenon of change in dominant digital infrastructures. The question is observed through the case of BankID infrastructure in Finland. Empirical research methodologies are applied in the study. The data has been collected through case studies and semi-structured interviews with practitioners and policymakers. This thesis consists of three phases and four sub-problems. First, the study explores the issue by analyzing the characteristics of the dependencies upon a dominant digital infrastructure. Second, the study gives a comprehensive account of the evolutionary dynamics of a dominant infrastructure by explaining how they transform. Next, the study concentrates on extracting the governance lessons learned from the Finnish IdM case. Lastly, the study proposes the overview of architecturally significant components when managing the development of IdM infrastructures. The results of the study reveal that as platforms gain dominance, they often become the de facto choice in the market. Furthermore, given the recursive relation between platforms and infrastructures, industry platforms that fail to anticipate wider ecosystem needs and adapt to them, evolve into industry infrastructures. The governance of the successful transformation of dominant (IdM) infrastructures requires cooperation and dialogue between the stakeholders. In addition, the following architecturally significant criteria can be used as an evaluative framework when assessing the design and development of large-scale, dominant IdM infrastructures: technology choice, identity provision, human-user integration, provider choice and the business model, governance structure and strategy in relation to the digital heritage. The results help advance current knowledge in the management of large-scale IdM infrastructures from both technology and organizational perspectives and could be used by software architects, business professionals, executive management as well as policymakers.