10 Research Questions: IS innovation for Sustainability

Melville (2010) develops a research agenda (with ten research questions) on information systems innovation for environmental sustainability. This agenda, which is drawn upon a framework called Belief- Action-Outcome, demonstrates "the critical role that IS can play in shaping beliefs about the environment, in enabling and transforming sustainable processes and practices in organizations, and in improving environmental and economic performance."

The following excerpts are selected from this research agenda (Melville 2010):

Given the complexity of the topic, the first two research questions underscore the need for diverse knowledge-creation approaches (positivist, interpretive, critical, and design) and theories in studies of IS for environmental sustainability.

• Research Question 1: How can different philosophical perspectives—positivist, interpretive, critical, and design—be applied to complex problems involving information systems, organizations, and the natural environment?
• Research Question 2: How can different theories be applied to complex problems involving information systems, organizations, and the natural environment?

Two research questions address research methodologies and metrics important to the sustainability domain but relatively new to IS scholarship, including life-cycle analysis, integrated assessment, and system dynamics modeling.

• Research Question 3: How can different research methodologies, such as life cycle analysis and integrated assessment, be applied to examine complex problems involving information systems, organizations, and the natural environment?
• Research Question 4: How can different environmental metrics, such as CO2 equivalent, be employed to assess the impact of IS on the natural environment?

The last set of six research questions addresses substantive issues in each of the three domains of the BAO framework for IS research on sustainability, such as how unique characteristics of the sustainability context (e.g., altruism) shape individual intention to use information systems for sustainability. Taken together, the BAO framework and research questions provide the basis for theory development in the realm of IS for sustainability.

• Research Question 5a: What is the impact of information systems on beliefs about the natural environment and environmental sustainability?
• Research Question 5b: What design approaches are effective for developing information systems that influence human beliefs about the natural environment?
• Research Question 6a: How do the distinctive characteristics of the environmental sustainability context, such as values and altruism, affect intention to use and usage of information systems for environmental sustainability?
• Research Question 6b: What design approaches are effective for developing information systems that influence human actions about the natural environment?
• Research Question 7: What is the association between information systems and organizational and sustainability performance?
• Research Question 8: What is the association between information systems and supply chain performance from an efficiency and environmental perspective?
• Research Question 9: How can firms optimally invest in industry IS platforms intended to reduce negative externalities associated with the natural environment?
• Research Question 10: How can systems approaches shed light on organizational and environmental outcomes that result from the use of IS for environmental sustainability?

Reference: (Melville, Nigel. 2010. "Information Systems Innovation for Environmental Sustainability," MIS Quarterly, (34: 1) pp.1-21.