A comprehensive framework to research digital innovation: The joint use of the systems of innovation and critical realism

•The need to study digital innovation at societal levels beyond organizations.•The systems of innovation as units of analysis and an integrative conceptual base.•Critical realism as the philosophical stance of systems of innovation.•The staged model to study the structure of the systems of innovation.•The morphogenetic approach to study the evolution of the systems of innovation. This study addresses calls to expand the boundaries of digital innovation research at multiple levels of society to comprehensively study the structure and evolution of innovation processes and outcomes. We contribute by proposing a framework composed of systems of innovation (SIs)1Systems of innovation (SIs).1 as an alternative and holistic conceptual base and unit of analysis, which accounts for the interconnected components located beyond the organizational microenvironments that ultimately affect innovation in organizations. Given the compatibility of SIs and the ontology of critical realism (CR)2Critical realism (CR).2 as well as some flaws in SI research practice, we also use critical realist research approaches to guide the study of the state and transformation of SIs. We further explain the joint use of SIs and CR by applying them to the area of information systems innovation diffusion.