Digital Transformation: Environmental Friend or Foe? Panel Discussion at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2019

Abstract

The advent of digital technologies such as social media, mobile, analytics, cloud computing and internet-of-things has provided unique opportunities for organizations to engage in innovations that are affordable, easy-to-use, easy-to-learn and easy-to-implement. Transformations through such technologies often have positive impacts on business processes, products and services. As such, organizations have managed to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce cycle time and make substantial gains through digital transformation. Such transformations have also been positively associated with reducing harmful environmental impacts by providing organizations alternative ways of undertaking their business activities. However, in recent times, especially with an abundance of technologies being available at near-zero costs, questions regarding the potential negative impacts of digital transformation on the environment have arisen. The morass of the ubiquitous technologies around us necessitates the continuing creation of large data centers, that are increasing their capacity yielding a negative impact on the environment. Considering this dialectical contradiction, a panel was conducted at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) in Perth, Australia, in 2019. Its aim was to invigorate the dialogue regarding the impact of digital transformation on environmental sustainability and suggested some directions for future research in this area.

The Mediating Effect of IT-Enabled Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Readiness on the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Digital Business Model Innovation: Evidence From Indonesia Incumbent Firms

“…In such circumstances, IT holds a strategic value, particularly regarding how it can lead to a competitive advantage.On the other side, established firms have to deal with organizational inertia, which influences their ability to alter existing business models or create new ones (DaSilva et al, 2013). Hence, organizational readiness has a crucial role in the adoption of digital innovation, however the concept of digital innovation readiness has received limited coverage in organizational literature (Lokuge & Sedera, 2014) Accordingly, this research investigates the causal relationship of digital innovation readiness with DBMI and IT-enabled dynamic capabilities (ITeDC).…”

Digital sustainable business models: Using digital technology to integrate ecological sustainability into the core of business models

“…First, we contribute to sustainable BM and Green IS research by analysing and articulating the benefits of digital technologies to create ecological sustainable BMs. We show that many companies fall short when they address sustainability only for cost and compliance reasons (Lokuge et al, 2021;Sedera et al, 2017;Van Osch & Avital, 2010).…”

“…Start-ups, such as LettUs Grow or Tado show that the value proposition can go beyond cost efficiency and legal compliance (Sedera et al, 2017) and become ecologically sustainable through digital technologies. These start-ups illustrate that ecological and economic sustainability are complementary and can be integral to a company's BM (Lokuge et al, 2021).…”

“…Following recent calls (Evans et al, 2017;Lokuge et al, 2021), we argue that it is beneficial for companies to simultaneously address the economically necessary digital transformation and the ecologically necessary sustainable transformation. Hence, we addressed the research question of how digital technologies can help companies become more sustainable rather than compensating for their impacts after the damage is done.…”

“…Each transformation fundamentally affects how they do business (Teece, 2010) and how they identify as an organisation (Wessel et al, 2021). This conundrum reveals why incumbents are reluctant to engage in ecological transformations and focus on digital transformation to ensure competitiveness (Lokuge et al, 2021; Sedera et al, 2017).…”