IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ininma/v35y2015i2p160-170.html

How information technology influences environmental performance: Empirical evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yi
  • Chen, Yang
  • Benitez-Amado, Jose

Abstract

Information technology (IT) can be the problem and solution for environmental sustainability. While IT is a source of environmental contamination during manufacturing and disposal, IT also presents opportunities for firms to greening IT and/or increasing their efficiency of resource use. We examine the role of IT as a solution possibility for environmental management and sustainability by analyzing how IT influences environmental performance. We propose a model in which IT influences environmental performance by enabling the integration of IT in environmental management processes. The proposed model is tested by using the variance-based structural equation modeling technique with matched-pair survey data from a sample of 151 Chinese firms. We find that: (1) Firm's proficiency in leveraging IT technical infrastructure flexibility, IT personnel skills and IT-business alignment enables the integration of IT in the environmental management processes to improve environmental performance, and (2) this IT integration is stronger when the firm is more oriented to environmental sustainability. We introduce to information systems community the construct IT-environmental management integration, and we explain theoretically and test empirically the role of IT-environmental management integration as a key mechanism through which IT competence influences environmental performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yi & Chen, Yang & Benitez-Amado, Jose, 2015. "How information technology influences environmental performance: Empirical evidence from China," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 160-170.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ininma:v:35:y:2015:i:2:p:160-170
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.11.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401214001194
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2014.11.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Curtis P. Armstrong & V. Sambamurthy, 1999. "Information Technology Assimilation in Firms: The Influence of Senior Leadership and IT Infrastructures," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 304-327, December.
    2. Paul A. Pavlou & Omar A. El Sawy, 2006. "From IT Leveraging Competence to Competitive Advantage in Turbulent Environments: The Case of New Product Development," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 198-227, September.
    3. Gregory G. Dess & Richard B. Robinson, 1984. "Measuring organizational performance in the absence of objective measures: The case of the privately‐held firm and conglomerate business unit," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 265-273, July.
    4. Ravishankar, M.N. & Pan, Shan L., 2013. "Examining the influence of modularity and knowledge management (KM) on dynamic capabilities: Insights from a call center," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 147-159.
    5. Jarvis, Cheryl Burke & MacKenzie, Scott B & Podsakoff, Philip M, 2003. "A Critical Review of Construct Indicators and Measurement Model Misspecification in Marketing and Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 30(2), pages 199-218, September.
    6. Kevin Zheng Zhou & Julie Juan Li & Nan Zhou & Chenting Su, 2008. "Market orientation, job satisfaction, product quality, and firm performance: evidence from China," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9), pages 985-1000, September.
    7. Koriat, N. & Gelbard, R., 2014. "Knowledge sharing motivation among IT personnel: Integrated model and implications of employment contracts," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 577-591.
    8. Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby, 2002. "Corporate environmentalism: the construct and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 177-191, March.
    9. Judge, William Q. & Elenkov, Detelin, 2005. "Organizational capacity for change and environmental performance: an empirical assessment of Bulgarian firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(7), pages 893-901, July.
    10. Howard Davies & Peter Walters, 2004. "Emergent patterns of strategy, environment and performance in a transition economy," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 347-364, April.
    11. Nilesh Saraf & Christoph Schlueter Langdon & Sanjay Gosain, 2007. "IS Application Capabilities and Relational Value in Interfirm Partnerships," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 320-339, September.
    12. Ranganathan, C. & Teo, Thompson S.H. & Dhaliwal, Jasbir, 2011. "Web-enabled supply chain management: Key antecedents and performance impacts," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 533-545.
    13. Lopez-Nicolas, Carolina & Soto-Acosta, Pedro, 2010. "Analyzing ICT adoption and use effects on knowledge creation: An empirical investigation in SMEs," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 521-528.
    14. Tari, Juan Jose & Molina, Jose Francisco & Castejon, Juan Luis, 2007. "The relationship between quality management practices and their effects on quality outcomes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 183(2), pages 483-501, December.
    15. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    16. Wynne W. Chin & Barbara L. Marcolin & Peter R. Newsted, 2003. "A Partial Least Squares Latent Variable Modeling Approach for Measuring Interaction Effects: Results from a Monte Carlo Simulation Study and an Electronic-Mail Emotion/Adoption Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 189-217, June.
    17. William Q. Judge & Thomas J. Douglas, 1998. "Performance Implications of Incorporating Natural Environmental Issues into the Strategic Planning Process: An Empirical Assessment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 241-262, March.
    18. Reinartz, Werner & Haenlein, Michael & Henseler, Jörg, 2009. "An empirical comparison of the efficacy of covariance-based and variance-based SEM," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 332-344.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang Chen & Guiyao Tang & Jiafei Jin & Ji Li & Pascal Paillé, 2015. "Linking Market Orientation and Environmental Performance: The Influence of Environmental Strategy, Employee’s Environmental Involvement, and Environmental Product Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 479-500, March.
    2. Albert Czerny & Peter Letmathe, 2017. "Eco‐efficiency: GHG reduction related environmental and economic performance. The case of the companies participating in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 791-806, September.
    3. Wang, Yi & Shi, Si & Nevo, Saggi & Li, Shaorui & Chen, Yang, 2015. "The interaction effect of IT assets and IT management on firm performance: A systems perspective," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 580-593.
    4. Pascal Paillé & Yang Chen & Olivier Boiral & Jiafei Jin, 2014. "The Impact of Human Resource Management on Environmental Performance: An Employee-Level Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 451-466, May.
    5. Mikalef, Patrick & Pateli, Adamantia, 2017. "Information technology-enabled dynamic capabilities and their indirect effect on competitive performance: Findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Braojos-Gomez, Jessica & Benitez-Amado, Jose & Javier Llorens-Montes, F., 2015. "How do small firms learn to develop a social media competence?," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 443-458.
    7. Rogier van de Wetering & Tom Hendrickx & Sjaak Brinkkemper & Sherah Kurnia, 2021. "The Impact of EA-Driven Dynamic Capabilities, Innovativeness, and Structure on Organizational Benefits: A Variance and fsQCA Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-23, May.
    8. Han, Jeong Hugh & Wang, Yingli & Naim, Mohamed, 2017. "Reconceptualization of information technology flexibility for supply chain management: An empirical study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 196-215.
    9. Waleczek, Peter & von den Driesch, Till & Flatten, Tessa C. & Brettel, Malte, 2019. "On the dynamic bundles behind operations management and research and development," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 175-187.
    10. Marco-Lajara, B. & Úbeda-García, M. & Zaragoza-Sáez, P. & Manresa-Marhuenda, E., 2023. "The impact of international experience on firm economic performance. The double mediating effect of green knowledge acquisition & eco-innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. López-Gamero, María D. & Molina-Azorín, José F. & Claver-Cortés, Enrique, 2011. "Environmental uncertainty and environmental management perception: A multiple case study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 427-435, April.
    12. Côrte-Real, Nadine & Oliveira, Tiago & Ruivo, Pedro, 2017. "Assessing business value of Big Data Analytics in European firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 379-390.
    13. Ann-Frances Cameron & Jane Webster, 2013. "Multicommunicating: Juggling Multiple Conversations in the Workplace," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 352-371, June.
    14. Linder, Christian, 2019. "Customer orientation and operations: The role of manufacturing capabilities in small- and medium-sized enterprises," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 105-117.
    15. MB Sarkar & Preet S. Aulakh & Anoop Madhok, 2009. "Process Capabilities and Value Generation in Alliance Portfolios," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 583-600, June.
    16. Ines Karra, 2021. "Resources and green strategic intent: towards improving the competitiveness of Tunisian industrial companies," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 1-25, April.
    17. Colin B. Gabler & Omar S. Itani & Raj Agnihotri, 2023. "Activating Corporate Environmental Ethics on the Frontline: A Natural Resource-Based View," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 63-86, August.
    18. Dayna Simpson & Danny Samson, 2010. "Environmental strategy and low waste operations: exploring complementarities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 104-118, February.
    19. Mai-Lun Chiu & Chingpu Chiao & Chun-Nan Lin, 2024. "The Mediating Role of Absorptive Capability Between the Effect of Organizational Internalization Through Social Media on Open Inbound Innovation," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 301-318, February.
    20. Aboobucker Ilmudeen, 2022. "Leveraging IT-enabled dynamic capabilities to shape business process agility and firm innovative capability: moderating role of turbulent environment," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2341-2379, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ininma:v:35:y:2015:i:2:p:160-170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-information-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.