Green E-Business Adoption in Developing Countries: A Conceptual model

Of the past recent, the use of e-business has been up-taken amazingly in various business sectors considering its characteristics of ubiquity, universal standards, global reach, richness, information density, interactivity, and personalization or customization of messages (Laudon & Traver, 2006). The growth is said to be stimulated by the increasing demand for data processing and storage, that is driven by several factors including: growth of the internet communication and entertainment use; increase in online shopping and related transactions; increase in electronic transactions in financial services such as online banking and electronic trading; shift to electronic of company records; growth in global commerce and services; and, adoption of satellite navigation and electronic shipment tracking in tracking. It has in turn been promising both for economic gains and environmentally sustainability (due to reduced commuting and use of paper works). However, concerns are emerging following this heavy usage of ICT to transact business, that the ebusiness technologies use energy too (Ali and Frew, 2000; Padayachee, 2004 and Siikavirta et al, 2003) and thus can contribute to Green House Gases (GHGs) emission and other environmental related problems. Studies document that the increased usage has lead to increased mass of data storage and processing. It is estimated that, disposal and use of ICT equipments contribute to around 2% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, an amount that is equivalent to that contributed by the aviation industry. As the use of ICT to transact business grows, its emissions are likely to increase and, further estimate indicate that, ICT will be responsible for 3% of global emissions by 2020 (Goasduff and Forsling, 2007). Furthermore, costs of electricity related to ICT usage are reported to always rising. Besides, electronic waste is emerging as one of the fastest growing waste (Babu, Parande, and Basha, 2007) that requires serious attention. Both in the developed and developing countries the situation is alarming. Yu et al (2010) forecasted that the global generation of obsolete personal computers will reach 400-700 million units in developing countries, and at 200-300 million units in developed countries by 2030. This is scaring not only to environment but also to the human health as the hazardous substance associated with computing equipment is dizzying (Tedre, Chachage and Faida, 2009). The substances for example include asbestos, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, lead, organotin, polybrominated biphenyl (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibensodioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs), red phosphorus, short chain chlorinated paraffin (SCCPs), arsenic, brominated compounds (including TBBPA), chlorinated compounds, mercury, phthalates (including DEHP, DBP, BBP, and DINP), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and sulphuric acid. The effects of those substances on humans are disastrous. It should however be noted that, although the most