A New Recommendation for Green IT Strategies

Abstract

Incorporating the natural environment as a strategic focus has recently been recognized as a possible source of competitive advantage. In this regard, green IT provides an opportunity for companies to tackle the environmental issue, and simultaneously serves as a source of competitive advantage. However, the field of green IT strategy, from the perspective of environmental management, remains limited by its distinct lack of a theoretical framework and straightforward definitions. In this conceptual study, we proposed “green IT strategies” based on a resource-based perspective by incorporating modern institutional theory into a strategic formulation. This chapter conceptualizes three different strategies: tactical green IT strategy, strategic proactive green IT strategy, and sustained green IT strategy, along with theory-based propositions for each of the strategies. The chapter also demonstrates that the Green IT strategy is path-dependent; that is to say, a firm’s prior experience and history helps determine its current strategies. This study also involves a discussion of the development of the theory, the proposed model, and some possible future research directions.