Investing in Sustainability: A Practice-Oriented Approach to Analyze IT-Investments in Sustainability Reporting Systems

2. Research Method

The exploratory approach of this article is methodologically supported by a summary based on literature research presenting the economical importance of sustainability (Chapter 3). In particular, the impact of IT systems for generating sustainability information as well as the special requirements of SMEs will be elaborated in this context. Focusing on the food industry as object of experience, the object of understanding, i.e. the process integration of sustainability, will be examined by means of a case study in a selected food company of the meet industry (Chapters 4 & 5). This case study was conducted in the scope of a Master thesis in 2011. The case study has been used to thoroughly understand the various aspects of the phenomenon investigated, especially with reference to the study of small and medium sized businesses which are widely used in the SEAR research field, too. The preceding random survey of 2011 (Chapter 4) was designed to investigate the aims and objectives of this study. It is used for the monitoring characterization of the object of experience and does not claim providing representative results.