How Sustainable is COBIT 5? Insights from Theoretical Analysis and Empirical Survey Data

Increasing consideration of the concept of sustainability within information technology (IT) organizations and information systems (IS) management has lead to rising challenges regarding the application of existing, nonor partially sustainable IT process models. Although IT reference models exist within the scope of sustainable IS management, the integration of sustainability aspects into well-established IT reference models of IS management and IT governance still lacks theoretical foundation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the specificities of sustainability in the current COBIT 5 process reference model. Based on an argumentative-deductive analysis of COBIT 5, enriched with results of a survey, we examine the significance and specificities of sustainability in COBIT 5 from the user perspective. Our findings provide valuable insights referring to sustainability-related deficits of COBIT 5. Furthermore, this paper can serve as a theoretical basis for further research that eventually takes a sustainability-oriented adjustment of COBIT 5 into account.