Universität zu Köln

Seidel, Stefan and Recker, Jan C. ORCID: 0000-0002-2072-5792 (2012). Implementing green business processes : the importance of functional affordances of information systems. In: ACIS 2012 : Location, location, location : Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Geelong, Australia, 4-5 Dec., 2012, Association for Information Systems.

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Abstract

An environmentally sustainable and thus green business process is one that delivers organizational value whilst also exerting a minimal impact on the natural environment. Recent works from the field of Information Systems (IS) have argued that information systems can contribute to the design and implementation of sustainable business processes. While prior research has investigated how information systems can be used in order to support sustainable business practices, there is still a void as to the actual changes that business processes have to undergo in order to become environmentally sustainable, and the specific role that information systems play in enabling this change. In this paper, we provide a conceptualization of environmentally sustainable business processes, and discuss the role of functional affordances of information systems in enabling both incremental and radical changes in order to make processes environmentally sustainable. Our conceptualization is based on (a) a fundamental definition of the concept of environmental sustainability, grounded in two basic components:the environmental source and sink functions of any project or activity, and (b) the concept of functional affordances, which describe the potential uses originating in the material properties of information systems in relation to their use context. In order to illustrate the application of our framework and provide a first evaluation, we analyse two examples from prior research where information systems impacted on the sustainability of business processes.

Item Type:	Book Section, Proceedings Item or annotation in a legal commentary
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Seidel, Stefan UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Recker, Jan C. UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-2072-5792
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-88958
Publisher:	Association for Information Systems
Subjects:	Data processing Computer science Management and auxiliary services
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Green IS English functional affordances English business process management English sustainability English IT-enabled transformation English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Cologne Institute for Information Systems (CIIS)
Language:	English
Date:	2012
Related URLs:	Publication
Refereed:	Yes
Title of Book:	ACIS 2012 : Location, location, location : Proceedings of the 23rd Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Geelong, Australia, 4-5 Dec., 2012
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/8895