Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Environmental Sustainability: A Resource Base and Framework for IT-Enabled Business Transformation

Abstract

The genesis of this study was several projects undertaken by the author, commencing in 2006, that identified IT as a potential source of solutions to address the challenges of environmental sustainability but that also found the issue had not engaged academic researchers in technology disciplines at a level likely to realize that potential. Work that had been undertaken, as a whole, focused on small parts of a large and complex problem from the narrow perspective of a single discipline.Within its overall aim, this study seeks to synthesize the environmental sustainability literature to increase its accessibility by a diversity of policy, practitioner, researcher, and social activist audiences. Environmental sustainability is a complex and multifaceted issue but the literature to date is overwhelmingly discipline-oriented. Hence, the proposal that a comprehensive, transdisciplinary framework for business transformation based on synthesis of the literature could facilitate the level of transformation required in business, politics, and society. The framework for business transformation is transdisciplinary, rather than multidisciplinary (more than one) or interdisciplinary (several integrated), in that the objective is to present a conceptual model accessible to and applicable by stakeholders across and beyond academic disciplines. The study subsequently sought to show how this framework could be applied to assist fundamental change in prevailing practices that restrain technology-generated environmental degradation and to promote opportunities for technology-enabled solutions.Recognizing the particular challenges inherent in a transdisciplinary literature review of a highly complex subject with nearly two million potential publications, the conceptual framework was developed in three phases. In phase one, a scoping review, each of the authoritative reports purposively selected for their relevance to the aims of the study (see listings of phase 1 sources in Tables 3 through 8) was analyzed to determine the specific problems to be the focus of this work and coded to identify the primary and secondary focal themes. The themes identified in each report were then grouped to form categories and subcategories. In phase two, the categorization from phase one was compared with academic research papers selected for relevance to the aims of the study from a selection of leading business and associated journals and from highly cited articles. The purpose was to ensure the problems and categories from phase one had relevance to business and had the potential for research contributions, as demonstrated by highly regarded research publications.In phase two, the papers were selected by searching leading business journals (e.g., the Academy of Management journals, California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Management Science, Sloan Management Review, and Strategic Management Journal) for relevant papers, seeking references within these papers, and searching for highly cited, relevant business-oriented papers through Sc...

In Search of Information Systems (Grand) Challenges

“…This is consistent with a general tendency in IS research towards increased sensitivity for societal problems (e.g., Elliot 2011;Melville 2010;vom Brocke et al 2013), reflected in recent special issues on Green IS (e.g., MIS Quarterly, Journal of Strategic Information Systems) or conference themes such as ''Building a Better World through Information Systems'' at ICIS 2014 or ''Reshaping Society Through Information Systems Design'' at ICIS 2013. We contend that IS has much to offer to solve global challenges as the IS field is concerned with nothing less than the ''central task of managing the information of mankind'' (Schwartz 2014, p. 3).…”

Information Systems Solutions for Environmental Sustainability: How Can We Do More?

“…Focusing on environmental challenges, Watson et al (2010), Melville (2010), and Elliot (2011) advocate that the IS discipline has both the responsibility and the historic chance to demonstrate societal value by contributing to solutions that lessen the negative environmental effects of people's behavior. For example, the "energy informatics" discipline (Watson et al, 2010) has arisen to investigate the design and use of information systems to improve energy efficiency through sensor networks in both businesses and private lives.…”

“…We expect that, over the next few years, the opportunity will arise to escape the current poverty of data to enable a rich analysis of electricity consumption behavior by a variety of parties, such as utility companies, appliance manufacturers, and IS scholars. argue that the literature largely lacks knowledge about the use of information systems in sustainability transformations in organizations (see Elliot, 2011;Melville, 2010;Watson et al, 2010). As such, they suggest empirical research as a suitable strategy to develop insights.…”

“…In contrast, there are many problems of environmental sustainability that one cannot solve with such targeted solutions and that need a broader multi-disciplinary or multi-faceted perspective. The trans-disciplinary nature of IS could have a role here (Elliot, 2011).…”

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“…They should guide political and regulatory decision-making processes and engage in industry consortiums or even entrepreneurial endeavors. Further, academics in Green IS should participate in inter-(and trans-) disciplinary research collaborations, as impactful solutions in the field of smart energy are inevitably involving a wide range of disciplines (e.g., engineering, economics, political sciences, environmental sciences, sociology, geology) (Elliot 2011).…”