How Can Information Technology Use Deliver Triple Bottom Line Value?

Abstract

Abstract

This paper examines the contribution of information technology (IT) use to an organization’s triple bottom line (TBL). While prior research characterizes IT as simultaneously contributing to sustainability problems and solutions, limited empirical work explains why and how IT use generates sustainable organizational outcomes in practice. Building on a TBL understanding of sustainability and the IT benefits management literature, we propose to conduct an interpretive multiple-case study to uncover the mechanisms and conditions through which IT use enables economic, environmental, and social organizational outcomes. Four cases will be selected using a 2x2 matrix to control for technical and contextual variations. Data collection and data analysis will be performed iteratively with the aim of establishing the chain of causality that links IT use to sustainable impacts. Pilot findings suggest that IT use does contributes to TBL outcomes although multiple contingencies must be considered, thereby confirming the study's premise while revealing methodological challenges.