Digital Twin Stakeholder Communication: Characteristics, Challenges, and Best Practices

Digital Twins (DT) encompass virtual models interconnected with a physical system through data links. Although DTs hold significant potential for positive organisational impact, their successful adoption in industrial practice remains limited. Whereas existing research predominantly focuses on technical challenges, more recent studies underscore the importance of addressing organisational and human factors to overcome implementation barriers. One central aspect in this context is stakeholder communication, especially given the ambiguous nature of the term DT in academic and industrial discussions. To expand the limited understanding of the factors causing challenging DT stakeholder communications, this article presents findings from an extensive exploratory study. It involves 27 in-depth interviews and two focus groups with highly experienced DT professionals. By employing grounded theory and the Gioia methodology, a grounded model for DT stakeholder communication challenges is derived. This model reveals the complex communication dynamics within DT projects, emphasising the emergence of novel stakeholder communication patterns that heavily rely on multidisciplinary collaboration. In total, 28 communication challenges were identified, grouped into eight theoretical themes and categorised into two aggregate dimensions: human- and organisation-centric challenges. Additionally, the study identified 15 practices, e.g., defining clear objectives, and starting small and building gradually, that organisations are following to mitigate these challenges. As a result, this article provides the theoretical groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of DT stakeholder communication and its associated challenges by revealing distinctive features and offering practical guidance to overcome critical challenges in DT projects.