Speaker
Description
The growing imperative for enterprises to align digital growth with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments has placed sustainable digital transformation at the forefront of both academic and policy agendas. Within this context, Design Thinking (DT) - with its human-centered, iterative approach to innovation - has emerged as a promising methodology for embedding sustainability into digital platforms and enterprise practices. However, the literature at this intersection remains fragmented across innovation management, information systems, and environmental economics, lacking a coherent synthesis of dominant themes and research gaps. This study addresses that need through a systematic bibliometric analysis of the literature connecting DT, sustainable digital transformation, and ESG performance.
Peer-reviewed publications indexed in Scopus and Web of Science are retrieved using a structured keyword search combining terms such as "design thinking", "digital transformation", "sustainability", "ESG", "Green ICT", and "sustainable innovation", covering the period 2000–2025. Analyses are conducted using VOSviewer and the Bibliometrix package in R, encompassing performance analysis of publication trends, leading journals, and contributing countries; keyword co-occurrence mapping to identify thematic clusters; co-citation analysis to reveal the intellectual structure of the field; and thematic evolution analysis to trace shifts in research priorities.
Preliminary results indicate a sharp acceleration in publication output after 2018, coinciding with the mainstreaming of EU sustainability frameworks including the European Green Deal and mandatory ESG reporting directives. Keyword mapping is expected to reveal dominant clusters around human-centered innovation, ESG governance and Green ICT practices, and sustainable digital platform design. Critically, the empirical study of DT's measurable contribution to enterprise ESG outcomes remains underrepresented - directly motivating a research agenda integrating cybernetic modeling with DT methodology.
This study offers a consolidated overview of an emerging interdisciplinary field, a replicable methodology for literature mapping, and a forward-looking research agenda - positioning DT as a mediating mechanism between digital intensity and ESG-aligned sustainability practices - with implications for researchers, practitioners, and EU digital transition policymakers.
