Explicating the enabling capabilities of Green IS: a management framework for South African Banks

Abstract

Environmental resource depletion and degradation threatens the well-being and possibly the long-term survival of the human race. This research addresses environmental resource depletion and degradation from an Information Systems (IS) perspective within South African banking organisations. Prior research exposes how IS have enabled and transformed organisations in many important ways. However, prior research does not explicate the enabling and transforming capabilities of Green IS for environmental sustainability; this is the research problem. In order to address this research problem, the objective of the research was to develop and verify an empirical Green IS framework that explicates the enabling and transforming capabilities of Green IS for environmental sustainability. The thesis is empirical and employs a mixed methods approach, involving the grounded theory method and content and correspondence analysis, the focus group method, and member checking. The thesis explicates, by way of a management framework, the enabling capabilities of Green IS for environmental sustainability, within South African banking organisations. This is an original contribution to the academic body of knowledge. The evidence indicates that the enabling capability of Green IS is prevalent while there is no evidence of a transforming capability. In addition, the thesis elucidates the concept of environmental sustainability exposing the importance of strong environmental sustainability and contrasting it with other contemporary, comparative concepts in the literature. The framework provides management with focal points for environmental sustainability by explicating the salient concepts and their interrelationships.