Requisite trust requirements for digital society development

PurposeThis study aims to demonstrate the importance of the requisite trust for the processes of digitalization of business, the state and society in general.Design/methodology/approachThe work is built “from particular to general”. The analysis of many cases of digitalization projects leads to some higher-level principles useful for description most of them – trust, umwelt and complexity.FindingsBased on the analysis of empirical material, the principle of requisite trust is introduced based on the definition of trust through a “relevant umwelt”. In addition, the article examines many aspects of society digitalization processes using cybernetic concepts. It is shown that (1) in the core of digitalization process is the export of the umwelt from human head to a computer (digital umwelt), (2) models used in the digital platforms are not only a reflection of social processes, but have a significant impact on them, like the observers of cybernetics of the second order and (3) umwelt concept is closely related to a social reality concept, meanings are relative and are carried by the communication systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper summarized practical and theoretical experience in the field of digital projects and introduced The Law of Requisite Trust. In the future, this principle should be studied more formally in quantitative terms.Originality/valueThe principle of requisite trust, as well as the definition of trust through the relevant umwelt is original. The promotion of trust in organizations and also digital organizations using such instruments as standard of social responsibility (ISO 26000) has high practical value.