Green Information Systems for Belief Formation in Organizational Sustainability Transformations
Project Description
Public and business organizations, a dominant part of our society, have always been a main contributor to the degradation of our natural environment, through their resource consumption, greenhouse emissions, and wastage production (Melville, 2010). Information systems (IS) have become a key resource to assist organizations in their efforts of implementing environmental sustainability (Thibodeau, 2007). Specifically, it has been suggested that information systems can play a meaningful role in altering individual beliefs about the natural environment (Bengtsson & Ågerfalk, 2011; Melville, 2010). These beliefs, in turn, impact on individual behavior, thereby inducing sustainability actions (Melville, 2010). An example for information systems that aim to influence individual beliefs about the natural environment are software cockpits that show environmental indicators such as carbon emissions, energy consumption or paper consumption, and that allow an open and inclusive dialog about the sustainability topic. However, to date, it is unclear how to design information systems that influence beliefs about the natural environment (Melville, 2010).
In order to fill this gap, the intended study seeks to investigate how organizations can design and implement information systems that change beliefs about the natural environment in general, and about sustainability transformations in particular.
In order to fill this gap, the intended study seeks to investigate how organizations can design and implement information systems that change beliefs about the natural environment in general, and about sustainability transformations in particular.
Relevance to Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein companies increasingly seek to become environmentally sustainable as they react to normative, regulative, and cultural cognitive pressures exerted by the external environment. The project develops important knowledge about how information systems can be built that support key processes related to sensemaking in such transformations.
