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

TL;DR

This paper explores how digital patriotism and geopolitics influence software adoption in Europe, highlighting a shift from cost and security concerns to ideological motivations like sovereignty and local industry support.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of digital patriotism, demonstrating its impact on software choices through empirical studies of European government and consumer behavior.

Findings

European government agencies increasingly cite sovereignty and geopolitical risks in software decisions.

Consumers and businesses show willingness to accept functional compromises for ideological reasons.

Digital patriotism extends software adoption theory by emphasizing value rationality alongside instrumental factors.

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.