Governance of Digital Transformation and Institutional Excellence

Abstract

ABSTRACT While digital transformation is a key lever for institutional performance, the attainment of its outcomes is contingent on a suitable governance framework that directs, orchestrates and protect this process. This paper addresses the issue of the relationship between the governance of digital transformation and the quest for institutional excellence in universities, public administration, and corporate organizations. To this end, a structured, mixed-methods, sequential explanatory study was undertaken, comprising the following steps: (1) a systematic narrative literature review on international experiences published during 2020–2026; (2) a cross-sectoral survey of 487 participants (higher education n=198; public administration n=152; corporate n=137), responding to an validated 42-item instrument; (3) semi-structured in-depth interviews with 24 participants; and (4) validation of our proposed model during an expert workshop with 12 practitioners. Based on this process, an Integrated Governance Framework for Digital Transformation and Institutional Excellence (IGF-DTIE) was developed that connects four governance pillars – namely: strategic leadership, digital infrastructure and data governance, human capital and digital culture, and risk/ethics/cyber security – to institutional objectives such as efficiency, transparency, innovation, and stakeholders trust. Statistical analysis (using Structural Equation Modeling) revealed that the governance can account for 68.3% of the variance in institutional excellence (=0.683; p<.001) with substantial differences across sectors. A comparative analysis between standard governance and quality management models (e.g. COBIT, ITIL, the UN e-Government Maturity Model, the OECD Digital Government Index 2025 and the EFQM Excellence Model) confirmed convergence in the importance attached to participatory decision-making, data stewardship, and continuous learning, but highlights on the persistent need for strengthening accountability mechanisms and capacity for change management. The findings suggest that institutional excellence can no longer be viewed as a certificate to be obtained but as a process-based emergent phenomenon of well-governed digital transformation, and contribute to generate practical propositions and an operational checklist for institutional managers and policy-makers.