Beyond the Performance Trap: A Multi-Level IS Framework for Valuing Disruptive Technology Transitions

Organisations evaluating disruptive technology transitions routinely default to incumbent performance
metrics, systematically undervaluing candidates whose value is created at organisational and ecosystem
levels rather than at the technical layer. We name this evaluation failure the performance trap and propose
the Multi-Level IS Value Framework (MIVF) as a theoretically grounded response. MIVF integrates three
IS lenses — IS Success, IT Business Value, and Digital Infrastructure / Service-Dominant Logic — into a
single tri-level diagnostic typology (Technical Substitution, Organisational Reconfiguration, Ecosystem
Emergence) and explicitly models cross-level decoupling, where firm-level capability deficits or fragmented
governance prevent technical superiority from realising organisational or ecosystem value. We illustrate
MIVF using the systemic edge-cloud transition through the COP-PILOT Horizon Europe project, with a
worked Smart Energy example showing how the same evidence yields opposing recommendations under
traditional and MIVF evaluation. We outline an empirical agenda across COP-PILOT's heterogeneous
pilots.