Information technology, the organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy and firm performance: a resource-based analysis

Abstract

The study of the relationships between information technology (IT), environmental organizational issues and firm performance is a cutting-edge research topic for the information systems (IS) community. However, at present we know very little about these relationships. Drawing on the perspective of ITenabled organizational capabilities and the literature on organizations and the natural environment, our study introduces conceptually the construct organizational capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy to the IS field. We propose that IT capability may enable the implementation of a proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy could play a significant role in determining the business value of IT. Using structural equations modeling with data collected from 63 firms, we find that IT capability is an enabler of proactive environmental strategy and that this strategy plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT on firm performance. Our study provides initial evidence on the role of IT in the implementation of proactive environmental practices. Our results suggest to IT executives that their decisions matter in shaping environmental sustainability, which in turn will generate business value from IT.

Employees' Collaborative Use of Green Information Systems

“…[6] [29]). In addition to such tangible outcomes, green innovation management activities help organizations establish a good green image, leading to competition advantage in the long run [12].…”

Impact of IS Strategy and Technological Innovation Strategic Alignment on FirmPerformance

“…IT innovation focuses on adopting IT products and or services to integrate core business competencies and support the administrative task of IT functions [82]. IT innovation capabilities are unique and valuable resources of a firm with great potential to contribute to competitive performance [83] and leveraging structural resource differences including diversification, flexibility, and quality among competing firms [84]. Using the unique capabilities of information technology, firms are able to fuse IS and business knowledge to ensure that technological innovation is captured at strategy conception [85], improve their innovation capabilities [86] and innovative performance [87] since innovation process is knowledge intensive [88].…”

Corporate Social Responsibility: Its Effect on SMEs

“…This variable was measured using the natural logarithm of total number of employees during 2013. This variable has been traditionally and frequently used in empirical studies due to its importance as a parameter of business development and business growth (Bagnoli & Vedovato, 2014;Benitez-Amado & Walczuch, 2012). The structural size of the company is deemed as an important factor in the generation of economic and financial performance (Jensen & Peng, 2013;Sigler, 2011).…”

“…Age of the company. Empirical studies frequently analyze this control variable within business models and associate it with economic and financial results in order to determine the influence of organizations over a set period of time (Bagnoli & Vedovato, 2014;Benitez-Amado & Walczuch, 2012). Company age determines how consolidated and mature a company is in the context of a market explained by the evolutionary theory (Nelson & Winter, 2009).…”