Digital products are rapidly shaping our world into a ubiquitous computing world. Because of its unique characteristics, digital artifacts are generative and highly evolving through the recombination of existing elements as well as by the invention of new elements. In this thesis, I first propose an evolutionary view to examine how digital artifacts can evolve over time based on the discussion of limitations of existing approaches. Then, inspired by contemporary evolutionary thinking and phylogenetics in biology, I develop a set of analytic approaches to classify different evolutionary patterns based on the evolutionary rate and evolutionary direction of the digital artifact. In three studies, I investigate digital evolution in specific contexts: web Mashup development, open source software development and digital design practice. I conclude my thesis by highlighting the contributions of my work, and summarizing current limitations and opportunities for future research. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

There are experiential products that through a digital transformation wholly or partially have taken new place in our everyday lives. Just a few years ago, we had music on CDs, movies on tape and books in bookshelves. In Sweden, we are now facing a transformation when the e-book begins to take place alongside the printed book. This paper focuses on what values play a role in the attitude towards ebooks among a selected group of Swedish book bloggers. A qualitative content analysis was performed on blog posts concerning the ebook from twelve different Swedish book blogs. The posts were then coded into categories and values. We found five broad categories in which value was displayed; Ownership, Availability, Price, Ergonomics and Environment. These could in turn be linked to two basic ways to give value to ebooks and reading, through its Utilitarian and Experiential value. The findings suggest that Availability was the one most important to the bloggers.  We also found that most posts took place within two discourses - Technology Dissatisfaction and Technology Fear. Technology Dissatisfaction was more frequent and strongly linked to the construction of the e-book and the technical systems that are available today.

With the invention of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in 2009, the world's first blockchain application was developed. While academic research gradually begins to investigate cryptocurrencies more closely and attempt to understand their functioning, technology is rapidly evolving and ecosystems grow exponentially. The research is still scattered and chaotic and has not produced common guidelines. Therefore, the question remains: how sustainable cryptocurrencies and their digital ecosystems are.Only a few models and frameworks take a holistic view on digital sustainability. Only two frameworks were identified that take distributed ledger technologies (blockchain) or cryptocurrencies into consideration: the three governance strategies for digital sustainability of Linkov et al. (2018) and 10 basic conditions of sustainable digital artifacts according to Stuermer, Abu-Tayeh and Myrach (2016). These two frameworks were combined into a new integrated sustainability framework for cryptocurrencies. The developed integrated sustainability framework consists of four dimensions and 12 categories.Existing secondary data, self-conducted social media interviews and practical insights gained through an ASIC mining experiment were used to fill the framework with sufficient data. It confirms Bitcoin's sustainability problems in energy consumption and scalability, highlights Ethereum's great potential as a blockchain platform and explains the higher scalability and faster payment of Ripple and IOTA.While 2017 marked the temporary peak of the cryptocurrency hype, 2018 was a transformative year in which the leading cryptocurrencies were increasingly occupying more specialised niches.

Den nuvarande pandemin har begränsat mänskligheten och det digitala vaccinationspasset för covid-19 utlovar återgången till ett normalt liv. Studien syftar till att undersöka vilket handlingsutrymme ett vaccinationspass ger medborgare utifrån deras förväntningar och vaccinationspassets krav. Det digitala vaccinationspassets egenskaper och förutsättningar som digital artefakt undersöks i relation till affordance modellen. Forskningsstrategin för studien har varit en fallstudie av kvalitativ karaktär där datainsamlingen består av semistrukturerade intervjuer med medborgare i Sverige och en litteraturgenomgång som utgör den aktuella debatten i relaterade forskningen. Studien visar på hur medborgare uppfattar införandet av ett digitalt vaccinationspass för covid-19 och vill visa på rekommendationer i arbetet med tillgängliggörandet av det digitala vaccinationspasset för medborgarna. Studien grundar sig i att tillgängliggörandet av det digitala vaccinationspasset kommer att ske någonstans framöver och vi vill därför poängtera att resultatet inte kan fastslås utan kommer förändras beroende på förutsättningarna och tidsramen för undersökningen. Studien identifierar bristerna med förmedlingen av information samt myndigheternas globala ansvar vid införandet av ett digitalt vaccinationspass mot covid-19. För att hantera detta rekommenderar vi att en strategi bör utvecklas och även ett förtydligande av informationen gällande vaccinationspasset mot covid-19. Utifrån studien tolkas det att det digitala vaccinationspasset utformas för de rika och att covid-19 har påskyndat digitalisering av samhället. Vi anser att alla bör ha tillgång till vaccin och tillgång till digital teknik innan det digitala vaccinationspasset mot covid-19 införs. / The current pandemic has limited humanity and the digital vaccination passport for covid-19 promises the return to a normal life. The study aims to investigate what room for maneuver a vaccination passport gives citizens based on their expectations and the requirements of the vaccination passport. The properties and conditions of the digital vaccination passport as a digital artifact are examined in relation to the affordance model. The research strategy for the study has been a case study of a qualitative nature where the data collection consists of semi-structured interviews with citizens in Sweden and a literature review that constitutes the current debate in related research. The study shows how citizens perceive the introduction of a digital vaccination passport for covid-19 and wants to show recommendations in the work of making the digital vaccination passport available to citizens. The study is based on the fact that the digital vaccination passport will be made available somewhere in the future and we therefore want to point out that the result can not be determined but will change depending on the conditions and time frame for the examination. The study identifies the shortcomings with the dissemination of information as well as the authorities' global responsibility in introducing a digital vaccination passport against covid-19. To deal with this, we recommend that a strategy should be developed and also a clarification of the information regarding the vaccination passport against covid-19. Based on the study, it is interpreted that the digital vaccination passport is designed for the rich and that covid-19 has accelerated digitization of society. We believe that everyone should have access to vaccines and access to digital technology before the digital vaccination passport against covid-19 is introduced.