Organizational Adoption of Green IS & IT: An Institutional Perspective

This article examines how institutional pressures affect the adoption of green IS&IT across organizations. From the natural-resource-based perspective, it examines green IS&IT practices with strategic foci on pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Each category incorporates the separate roles played by IT (as a problem) and IS (as a solution). The partial least square method was employed to analyze the survey replies from 75 organizations. The results show that mimetic and coercive pressures significantly drive green IS&IT adoption. In particular, outcome-based imitation and imposition-based coercion represent major institutional processes. The results also suggest the complementary relationship between mimetic and coercive pressures. Such interaction significantly motivates the green IS&IT adoption focusing on product stewardship. These findings contribute to existing knowledge on the proenvironmental behaviors of organizations, demonstrate the interaction between institutional forces, and further current understanding of green IS&IT adoption. The study concludes with implications for research and practice.