Orchestrating API-enabled cloud business services for digital transformation: a narrative analysis

Prior research has explored the influence of cloud infrastructure on the orchestration of software development. The role of APIs, low-code development, and modular cloud components in the orchestration of the business service development, however, remains under-researched. Drawing on a case study of the transformation of business services in a UK local authority, we show how developing the capacity to innovate new business services using modular cloud components involved the orchestration of actors and resources from a range of different organizations across a distributed digital ecosystem. We identify three characteristics of this cloud business service orchestration and discuss the issues and research opportunities they raise. The implications of these findings for orchestration more generally, and for IS theory and research practice are outlined.