The use of technology by organizations to enhance social and environmental sustainability

Many organizations currently consider transformative change to create opportunities for a better quality of life and a sustainable future (Linnenluecke et al., 2017; Lee and Trimi, 2018). Digital technologies often provide opportunities to achieve these goals in new ways, e.g. through the internet-of-things (IoT) and blockchain technology (De Villiers et al., 2021). Apart from bringing new solutions, digitalization also challenges the business environment (Vial, 2019). These challenges require increasing interaction with digital technologies entailing transformation in many different ways (Van Veldhoven and Vanthienen, 2019).

In addition, uncertain times and unexpected crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerate this digital trend in society, challenging managers, professionals, and management scholars. Therefore, organizations increasingly need to understand their role in society and how this may change (Flyverbom and Garsten, 2021). The response to the COVID-19 pandemic stimulated the use of technology and refocused many on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while at the same time decreasing human interactions and mobility around the world (Barnes, 2020).

Under these conditions, sustainability has been identified as a key business imperative that impacts value creation. As a managerial feature, it helps social change and enables organizations to reach capabilities for this important digital transition (Amui et al., 2017). Therefore, many organizations need to integrate sustainability into their business model (i.e. in terms of operations, risk management, product creation, etc.), which will affect sustainability performance (Adams and McNicholas, 2007). The latter involves the harmonization of financial, environmental and social objectives in the delivery of core activities in order to maximize organizations’ value.

In line with this the UN’s Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) clearly called for “a data revolution for sustainable development” (Yayboke, 2017 p.10). Therefore, the potential offered by the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) could lead sustainable development.

The digital transformation highlights that the future of organizations is related to sustainability which means to develop organizational, technological and social capabilities within various ecosystems where different actors play a relevant role in the value co-creation path.

We welcome empirical and theoretical papers, dealing with organizations that are developing a sustainable future, driving innovation and value creation. Topics could examine the following areas (but are not limited to these), always in the context of digitization and sustainability: 

• Decision making
• ICT and sustainable organizations
• Corporate and entrepreneurial culture regarding sustainable organizations
• Value co-creation in a sustainable setting
• Business intelligence and decision support
• Business process management
• Data-driven Business Process Automation
• Innovation and productivity
• New organizational processes and roles
• Operations management
• Project management and organizational setup of data science 

Submissions

Submissions open: 1st February 2024

Deadline for submissions: 30th May 2024

All submissions should be made through ScholarOne: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sampj

Submissions must adhere to the format and style guidelines of the Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/sampj#author-guidelines.  

References

Adams, C.A. and McNicholas, P. (2007), Making a difference: Sustainability reporting, accountability and organisational change, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 382-402. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570710748553

Amui, L. B. L., Jabbour, C. J. C., de Sousa Jabbour, A. B. L., & Kannan, D. (2017). Sustainability as a dynamic organizational capability: a systematic review and a future agenda toward a sustainable transition. Journal of cleaner production, 142, 308-322.

Barnes, S. J. (2020), ‘Information management research and practice in the post-COVID-19 world’, International Journal of Information Management, online first.

De Villiers, C., Kuruppu, S. & Dissanayake, D. 2021. A (new) role for business - promoting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals through the internet-of-things and blockchain technology, Journal of Business Research, 131, 598-609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.066

Flyverbom M. Garsten C. (2021). Anticipation and Organization: Seeing, knowing and governing futures. Organization Theory, - journals.sagepub.com https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211020325

Lee, S. M., & Trimi, S. (2018). Innovation for creating a smart future. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(1), 1-8.

Linnenluecke, M. K., Verreynne, M. L., de Villiers Scheepers, M. J., & Venter, C. (2017). A review of collaborative planning approaches for transformative change towards a sustainable future. Journal of Cleaner Production, 142, 3212-3224.

Van Veldhoven, Z., Vanthienen, J., (2019). Designing a comprehensive understanding of digital transformation and its impact. In: 32nd Bled eConference: Humanizing Technology for a Sustainable Society, pp. 745–763.

Vial, G. (2019). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(2), 118–144.

Yayboke, E. (2017), Harnessing the Data Revolution to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: Enabling Frogs to Leap, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, USA.