Development of a Research Framework for Green IT Enablers using Interpretive Structural Modelling

Introduction

The increased power consumption, carbon footprints and early disposal of electronic items containing toxic and non-biodegradable material in the regular IT operations are estimated to be responsible for 2% of global carbon emission from IT industry and also causing serious health problems to mankind (Simon Mingay, 2007). Consequently, unsustainability through global warming is becoming a major problem on the planet. So the green IT found to be an emerging area in the IT management emphasising on six dimensions namely raw material and resources, energy and climate, excess production, health and safety of mankind, management development and invention through IT. The first generation of green IT which was driven by reduced power consumption, eco-labeled products, recycling and reusing process of e-waste (Murugesan and Gangadharan, 2012) and the second generation was focused on sustainability through IT. Today the green IT studies are progressed far beyond these issues and delivering sustainable benefits in the business by being socially responsible, economically viable and environmental benefits which is considered to be the triple bottom line. Despite reducing 2% of global pollution, green IT initiatives also able to reduced remaining 98% of global emissions to some extent and attracting interest among IT vendors and corporate consumers. Green IT being a potential research area has exciting research opportunities in IT through business sustainability and low carbon economy (Molla, 2008). Hence this research is primarily conducted to provide an evidence of authenticated studies on consumer purchasing behaviour of green IT products which are found to be neglected so far.

This paper identifies and develops the conceptual relationships among the identified enabling factors that are driving the corporate IT consumers towards green IT products using Delphi technique and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) approach. ISM is a popular strategic approach for identifying relationships among various elements in a complex system (Sage, 1977 and Warfield, 1974). The major consensus among experts in this field and a source from literature study are used in developing the relationship matrix using pairwise comparison and thereby developing the ISM model. The suggested variables are gathered as “enablers” from various green IT literature and experts responses as presented in Table 1. Further with the application of integrated approach of Delphi technique and ISM in developing the green IT consumer purchasing behaviour model are discussed in detail followed by conclusions and direction for future research studies.