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The overall purpose of this study is to identify\n                    <jats:italic>why digital transformations in the public sector of developing country contexts fail<\/jats:italic>\n                    . This paper reports on a rich revelatory case study of a Sri Lankan government agency that experienced digital transformation failure. Data was collected primarily via semi-structured interviews and augmented with document analysis that enabled us to derive deep insights into why digital transformations fail. We identified 23 failure factors which were grouped into 5 meta-themes, namely, Organisational, Implementing Agency, Cultural, Leadership and Macro-Level Factors, forming a failure factor model. The analysis also unveiled complex interrelationships between these themes\/factors, which formed the basis for 6 evidence-supported propositions detailed in the paper. 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