Software and Web-Based Tools for Sustainability Management in Micro-, Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Research output: Contributions to collected editions/works › Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Research › peer-review
Authors
Recently, new approaches to organizational level sustainability management and reporting have emerged in the form of software and web-based applications. At first glance, it appears that such software and web-tools are applicable in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they offer user-friendly and cost-effective alternatives to assess, manage and report on company-wide sustainability activities. Nevertheless, it remains academically and practically uncertain if such technological advancements will be adopted by a great number of SMEs. Using the Individual-Technology-Organization-Environment (ITOE) model as a theoretical framework and empirical data from a recent survey with 1,250 German SMEs, this paper investigates various firm-internal and external factors that might influence managers’ decisions to adopt or reject this new technology. This paper reveals which factors might play a role in the adoption of such web-tools in SMEs. In addition, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of an IT-assisted sustainability analysis and reporting scheme for micro-enterprises and startups. Based on existing software for larger enterprises, the paper describes the main content and potential layout of such a web-based tool.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Advances and New Trends in Environmental and Energy Informatics : Selected and Extended Contributions from the 28th International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection |
Editors | Jorge Marx Gómez, Michael Sonnenschein, Ute Vogel, Andreas Winter, Barbara Rapp, Nils Giesen |
Number of pages | 16 |
Place of Publication | Cham |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing AG |
Publication date | 2016 |
Pages | 259-274 |
ISBN (print) | 978-3-319-23454-0 |
ISBN (electronic) | 978-3-319-23455-7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
- Sustainability sciences, Management & Economics - Small and medium-sized enterprises, Sustainability management, Individual-technology-organization-environment framework, Quick-check, Web-based tools