Sustainability-Oriented Digital Governance of Megaprojects: A Theoretical Analytical Framework and Future Research Agendas
TL;DR
The findings reveal that digital technology governance permeates the entire project lifecycle and garners the most scholarly attention, whereas digital derivatives governance is conspicuously understudied across all lifecycle stages.
Abstract
Driven by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and digital transformation, digital governance of megaprojects has become a key means of advancing sustainability objectives. However, the existing scholarship lacks a holistic understanding of digital governance in megaprojects, and the sustainability-oriented research landscape has yet to be systematically mapped. This study takes the Web of Science Core Collection as the primary data source, complemented by citation tracking, to identify and screen 127 publications published between 2016 and 5 March 2026. Bibliometric analysis is employed to delineate the developmental characteristics and research hotspots of the field. Subsequently, a theoretical analytical framework—Megaproject Sustainable Digital Governance (MSDG)—is constructed, integrating three core dimensions: the project lifecycle, sustainability, and digital governance. Guided by this framework, a coding scheme is developed for the content analysis of the 127 selected papers. The findings reveal that digital technology governance permeates the entire project lifecycle and garners the most scholarly attention, whereas digital derivatives governance is conspicuously understudied across all lifecycle stages. In terms of sustainability, the economic dimension dominates the discourse, while environmental issues are insufficiently represented. This paper aims to map the full landscape of lifecycle-oriented research on sustainable digital governance of megaprojects and proposes two future research agendas to facilitate the transition toward sustainable digital governance.