A Taxonomy for Digital Business Continuity Management

ABSTRACT

Business Continuity Management (BCM) research has developed across multiple disciplines without a shared conceptual vocabulary, producing fragmentation that hinders cumulative theory‐building and cross‐disciplinary dialogue. This study addresses this gap through two complementary contributions. First, a systematic literature review is conducted to map the dispersed BCM literature, identify recurrent ambiguities and analyze how BCM has been conceptualized within Information Systems research, where digitalization pressures are most pronounced. Second, based on the review's findings, the study proposes a taxonomy of Digital Business Continuity Management. The taxonomy organizes BCM into four lifecycle dimensions (Motivation, Preparation, Occurrence Management and Evaluation) and adds a second classificatory axis, the Digital Character of the continuity object, whose four constitutive properties (Systemic Interdependence, Data Centrality, Algorithmic Decision‐Making and Distributed Governance) distinguish a digital BCM taxonomy from a generic one. The taxonomy was evaluated through an internal methodological assessment and an expert‐based content validation with 12 domain experts, which supported its clarity, comprehensiveness and usefulness (S‐CVI/Ave = 0.89). The result provides a structured vocabulary and classification scheme capable of supporting more consistent theoretical development and future empirical research in digitally transformed organizations.