Searching for European Alternatives: Digital Sovereignty, Digital Patriotism, and the Emerging Geopolitics of Software Adoption

2026-04-17

AI Summary

This study addresses the limitations of traditional software adoption models, which overlook ideological factors and thus struggle to explain the recent shift among European users and governments toward domestic alternatives. Introducing the concept of “digital patriotism,” this work integrates value rationality into technology adoption theory. Through directed content analysis and qualitative textual analysis, it systematically examines software replacement decisions by European governments and over 700 online comments totaling more than 51,000 words. Findings reveal that post-2020 adoption motivations in Europe have significantly shifted from cost considerations and lock-in effects toward concerns about technological sovereignty, geopolitical risk, and support for domestic industries. The study thereby uncovers the profound influence of ideology on technology choices and expands the explanatory boundaries of software adoption theory.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Preferences
• Game Theory and Economic Paradigms: Social Choice / Voting

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Social and technical mechanisms of refusal for web technologies and applications
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization
• Social Networks and Social Media: Media and governance, opinion dynamics, filter bubbles, polarization

Abstract

Software adoption has traditionally been understood through instrumental lenses, such as usability, cost, security, and interoperability. We argue that a new, ideological dimension is reshaping adoption decisions: one we term digital patriotism, the individual counterpart to the state ideology of digital sovereignty. Through two studies, we trace this phenomenon. First, a directed content analysis of decisions made by European government agencies to switch away from de facto technology standards reveals a shift around 2020: early switches cited costs and vendor lock-in, while later switches invoke sovereignty, geopolitical risk, and investment in local industry. Second, a qualitative analysis of over 700 online comments (over 51,000 words) surfaces how consumers and businesses articulate motivations for seeking European software alternatives. We find that digital patriotism entails a willingness to accept functional compromise in service of ideological goals. Our work extends software adoption theory by drawing attention to value rationality alongside instrumental rationality, and contributes an empirical account of how geopolitics is reshaping technology choice in the workplace.

Problem

• digital sovereignty
• digital patriotism
• software adoption
• geopolitics
• ideological motivation

Innovation

• digital patriotism
• digital sovereignty
• software adoption
• geopolitics
• value rationality