This special issue of the Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society entitled "Digital Economy and the role of Technologies, People and Processes in Society" comprises a collection of five papers that depict forward-looking research on the various facets of technology and its impact on several areas of society, namely business and education. The guest editors selected these papers from the Internet Technologies and Society 2017 Conference (ITS 2017) and the International Conference on Educational Technologies 2017 (ICEduTech 2017), which were both held in Sydney, Australia. The selection of the papers was based on their conference version’s reviews and their suitability to the purview of the journal. The original conference papers have been extended significantly and resubmitted to peer-review to ensure a high publication standard.