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Linkages between e-business and sustainability outcomes: An exploratory study
Nardia Haigh
CITEC Business Analyst, Brisbane QLD
Abstract
This paper addresses the intersection of two global trends through a study examining the impact of eBusiness capabilities on the natural environment. The growing requirements of organisations to deploy information systems innovatively and strategically, and to engage in corporate sustainability practices lead to their examination.
The paper contributes to the debates in this area by using an exploratory case study method to examine four key propositions regarding the ecological impacts of eBusiness innovations. The study found eBusiness to be exporting resource consumption. It also found that economic growth enabled by eBusiness could erode eco-efficiencies. Additionally, the study identified a measurement gap, leaving organisations handicapped in their decision-making by the inability to account for dissimilar ecological impacts without difficulty.
The study supports the existence of significant links between eBusiness and the natural environment, along with the need to weave corporate sustainability into the early stages of organisational design and eBusiness strategy development to create positive and purposeful ecological impacts.
Keywords
corporate sustainability, innovation, information systems, eBusiness, ecological impacts, case study, resource consumption, eco-efficieny, measurement gap, organisational decision making, organisational design, eBusiness strategy
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