Reference Model for Sustainable Information Systems Management: Establishing a Holistic Research Agenda

Green IT has become a well-known topic in academic journals and conferences of the IS research community. Recently, a shift from Green IT to Green IS could be observed. Green IS is a more far-reaching concept that comprises IT-enabled business and production processes as well as human skills and activities such as IT management. To proceed towards a holistic approach of sustainable IS management that addresses all dimensions of the triple bottom line, social aspects should be considered next to environmental issues. To do so, we propose a research agenda in the form of a matrix that reveals possible fields of action where a new triple bottom line thinking has to be integrated into prevalent business practices and decision-making processes. As a first step, we define the core processes of IT management as basis for our reference model: govern, source, make, and deliver. On the basis of the ten suggested fields of action, we identify a wide range of possible sustainability initiatives that allow for a more sustainable IT management in the context of an extensive literature review. The practice-oriented Reference Model for Sustainable Information Systems Management adds to the body of knowledge by consolidating and structuring established concepts. This is helpful for both practitioners and academics: practitioners get an overview of possible measures to make their organizations more sustainable and academics can draw on the classification system to identify and close research gaps in a systematic way.