Digital solutions are increasingly used to address “wicked problems” that are locally embedded but require global approaches. Scaling these solutions internationally is imperative for their success, but to date we know little about this process. Using a qualitative case study methodology, our paper analyzes how four digital solutions driven by the United Nations are built and how they scale internationally. These solutions address wicked problems through artificial intelligence, blockchain, and geospatial mapping, and are embedded in networks of partners which evolve during scaling to create unique ecosystem roles and configurations. We identify different ecosystem roles and find that the specific properties of digital solutions – modularity, generativity and affordances – enable either adaptation or replication during scaling. Building on these insights, we derive a typology of four different types of international scaling, which vary in their ecosystem versatility (how the ecosystem changes across locations) and the local adaptation of the application (the problems the solution addresses). This study presents a new way to examine the replication and adaptation dilemma for ecosystems and extends internationalization theory to the digital world.

数字解决方案越来越多地用于解决本地嵌入但需要全球性方法的“棘手问题”。在国际上扩展这些解决方案对于它们的成功至关重要，但迄今为止我们对这一过程知之甚少。我们的论文采用定性案例研究方法，分析了联合国推动的四种数字解决方案是如何构建的以及它们如何在国际上扩展。这些解决方案通过人工智能、区块链和地理空间测绘解决棘手问题，并嵌入合作伙伴网络中，这些合作伙伴网络在扩展过程中不断发展，以创建独特的生态系统角色和配置。我们确定了不同的生态系统角色，并发现数字解决方案的特定属性——模块化、生成性和可供性——可以在扩展过程中实现适应或复制。基于这些见解，我们得出了四种不同类型的国际扩展的类型，它们的生态系统多功能性（生态系统如何随位置变化）和应用程序的本地适应性（解决方案解决的问题）各不相同。这项研究提出了一种研究生态系统复制和适应困境的新方法，并将国际化理论扩展到数字世界。