Assessing the Influence of Persuasive Systems for Sustainability across Work-Home-Community Boundaries

Little doubt remains that human activities have contributed to climate change and environmental degradation over the past century. Humans must now alter their behaviours if the devastating consequences of climate change are to be avoided. To this end, persuasive systems for sustainability present a novel opportunity for encouraging environmentally responsible behaviours. This paper is part of ongoing research seeking to assess the influence of a persuasive system for sustainability deployed in one domain, such as a utility-sponsored energy conservation application, on individual behaviours within that domain, and also in other domains, such as at work or in the community. Here, we report on the development of measures to evaluate our constructs of interest, namely environmentally responsible behaviours at work, home and in the community, rebound effects, work-home-community boundary strengths, complexity of change and system characteristics of perceived persuasiveness and integration support. Through a process that included item creation, card sorting and exploratory factor analysis based on a survey of 168 participants, we have been successful in developing certain measures. Although still in progress, this work contributes to the Green IS literature by developing new measures and drawing attention to mechanisms for enhancing organizational and interorganizational sustainability initiatives.

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