IT-enabled Sustainability Transformation - the Case of SAP

This teaching case describes how SAP, a leading global information technology (IT) solutions provider, embarked on a large-scale transformation program to implement a dual sustainability strategy of: (a) internally transforming the organization, and (b) addressing a business opportunity by developing IT solutions that enable their customers to become more sustainable. This case provides students with significant information about the development of SAP towards sustainability, including the company's underlying motivation, their approach to change and related challenges, and their use of IT to enable the transformation. The teaching case provides an opportunity to critically examine the benefits and risks of using IT in an effort to improve the sustainability of an organization, and to develop appropriate models for sustainable strategies and IT implementation efforts.

[1]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole's Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[2]  Daniel Schmid,et al.  Interview with Daniel Schmid on “ Sustainability and the Role of IT ” , 2013 .

[3]  John Elkington,et al.  Partnerships from cannibals with forks: The triple bottom line of 21st‐century business , 1998 .

[4]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[5]  Nigel Melville,et al.  Information Systems Innovation for Environmental Sustainability , 2010, MIS Q..

[6]  Jan Recker,et al.  Sensemaking and Sustainable Practicing: Functional Affordances of Information Systems in Green Transformations , 2013, MIS Q..

[7]  Lisa Anderson.  The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World , 2010 .

[8]  C. MacDonald,et al.  Getting to the Bottom of “Triple Bottom Line” , 2004, Business Ethics Quarterly.

[9]  Jan Recker,et al.  Enablers and Barriers to the Organizational Adoption of Sustainable Business Practices , 2010, AMCIS.

[10]  David C. Michael,et al.  Making Sustainability Profitable , 2013 .

[11]  L. Steg,et al.  Customers' values, beliefs on sustainable corporate performance, and buying behavior , 2007 .

[12]  Steve Elliot,et al.  Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Environmental Sustainability: A Resource Base and Framework for IT-Enabled Business Transformation , 2011, MIS Q..

[13]  Thomas Dyllick,et al.  Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability , 2002 .

[14]  J. Last.  Our common future. , 1987, Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique.

[15]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Information Systems and Environmentally Sustainable Development: Energy Informatics and New Directions for the IS Community , 2010, MIS Q..