Towards a conceptual definition for IT assets through interrogating their nature and epistemic uncertainty

•IT assets are evolving in the era of digital transformation, 4IR and knowledge economy.•Assets identification, currently, is inadequate for risk assessment in these eras.•Consideration must be given for IT assets' inherent epistemic uncertainty.•Practitioners and researchers must be flexible to accommodate the dynamic, emergent, deriving, evolving nature of IT assets.•The conceptual definition for IT assets provides for extending IT/DT/digital assets' attributes.•Critical realism enables interrogation of IT artefacts as phenomena/reality.