Responsibility in the Digital Environment

14 October 2025

Photo: UHH/Longe

Prof. Dr. Jan Recker

Digital expert Prof. Dr. Jan Recker talks in an interview about digital responsibility, a topic on which he has written an editorial in the "Journal of the Association for Information Systems".

Jan Recker is Nucleus Professor of Information Systems and Digital Innovation at the University of Hamburg Business School. In Stanford University's current ranking of the world's top scientists, he ranks second in Germany and 81st worldwide among 18,546 researchers in the field of business informatics.

Prof. Dr. Recker has written an editorial entitled "Digital Responsibility: Current Perspectives and Future Directions" in a special issue of the "Journal of the Association for Information Systems" on the topic of digital responsibility. The digital expert explains what the term means in an interview.

Professor Recker, in a scientific editorial, you addressed the topic of digital responsibility in the context of various research projects. What does this term mean?

(Prof. Dr. Jan Recker:) Digital responsibility means addressing both the power and the danger of digitalisation in relation to people, businesses and societies. This essentially involves three aspects: Firstly, taking responsibility for both the harmful and positive effects of using digital technology. Secondly, it means committing to enabling the positive outcomes of digitalisation while protecting against potential negative consequences. And finally, it also means promising to be reliable, i.e. committing to fulfilling responsibilities and obligations consistently and over the long term.

How could this be implemented and monitored in practice?

Two things: Firstly, you always need a clear point of contact: Which actor - as a person or company, for example - can I contact regarding responsibilities, obligations or promises? The exchange about digital responsibility always begins with me being able to talk to someone responsible. Secondly, there must be procedures in place that allow me to exercise or demand responsibility - for example, if I discover a breach of obligations. What these procedures look like is a matter of interpretation and can also be changed, but it is important to have processes in place that can be followed.

Are there any rules for dealing with digital technologies yet?

Yes, to some extent, but not comprehensively, uniformly or consistently. In Europe, for example, there are regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation and the European Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. However, these rules do not apply in other countries. Some countries have regulations with different content, while others have none at all. Digital technologies, however, often operate globally, across national borders. There are also social norms or organisational commitments that are adopted and adhered to by some, but not by others. Or they are simply perceived differently. There is a colourful and patchy tapestry of rules.

To what extent does the approach to digital responsibility differ between individual countries or regions, for example when comparing the USA, China and Germany or the EU?

When looking at these regions and countries, the legal situation varies greatly, as do the social norms and moral values underlying the issue of responsibility. This applies, for example, to expectations regarding accountability for users or providers of digital technologies, data protection and intellectual property rights for digital content.

How can each individual contribute to greater digital responsibility?

Above all, through a heightened awareness that digital technologies are neither unconditionally good nor unconditionally bad - they offer opportunities to design and implement things, but ultimately it is always people who design technologies or use them for specific purposes. Once you realise that the use of technology can have both unexpected positive and negative effects, you automatically start to weigh them up.

How do you see the future of the digital world?

As business informatics specialists, we examine a wide range of phenomena at the interface between society and technology. There is always a sense of enthusiasm and optimism about the potential of digital technologies to do good. History shows that this feeling is well-founded. We should not limit this confidence, but we need to contextualise it better. AI, for example, offers many opportunities to solve major social problems, for example in the labour market or in care, but it also comes with an enormous ecological footprint and a possible loss of human autonomy. We must always weigh up which opportunities are associated with which trade-offs and whether we are prepared to accept them.

Our special edition on digital responsibility is a call to maintain a justified but moderate optimism about the power of digital technology for the benefit of humanity. Our belief in the potential of digital technology to solve humanity's problems must remain intact – but we must also be aware that this power comes with an obligation to exercise it responsibly. For me, awareness of the opportunities and dangers of digitally enabled, embodied or mediated actions is the key to embracing digital responsibility. We hope that our special edition will help to revive, but also redefine, a collective optimism about the possibilities of digital technologies.