School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology Master Thesis in IT Management Mission Possible: Becoming Green and Sustainable An empirical study on Green IT Adoption and underlying factors influencing it By Gholamreza Nazari and Hooman Karim TUTOR : Ole Liljefors Västerås, Sweden November 2011 1 Abstract Course: Master Thesis in IT Management Authors: Gholamreza Nazari and Houman Karim Tutor: Ole Liljefors Tittle: Mission Possible: Becoming Green and Sustainable- An empirical study on Green IT Adoption and underlying factors influencing it Purpose: This study aims to investigate the main areas of Green IT and to determine which areas of Green IT have been widely adopted and implemented in our case studies. The purpose of the proposed study is also to identify, describe and analyze underlying factors that are perceived to be important to the adoption and implementation of Green IT. Finally, this research attempts to examine which factors are more important in our two case studies, Västerås City Stad and Mälardalen University. Method: This study is mostly based on an open and exploratory research method. Case study is used as the main approach in this thesis in order to identify different areas of Green IT and key factors influencing Green IT adoption. Qualitative research method has been implemented for data collection and analysis of the research study. Two questionnaires and some interviews were our primary data collection tools. Findings: The findings identified five main areas of Green IT. Corporate Citizenship and the Office Environment areas are widely adopted in our case studies. Among 15 key factors, we identified in the literature, Organizational Slack, compatibility and competitive pressure are the most significant factors in two organizations we studied. Keywords: Green IT, Green Information Technology, Sustainable Development, sustainable IT, green computing. 2 Acknowledgement We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Ole Liljefors, our tutor for providing clear direction and guidance. We also want to take this opportunity to convey our sincere thanks to Professor Gary Jordan for offering his precise suggestions and ideas. This manuscript would not have been possible without our tutor and examiner help. We also extend our sincere thanks to people who supported us in the process of gathering research data at Västerås Stad and Mälardalen University. Finally, we would like to thank all the people who contributed towards completing this thesis. Hooman Karim and Gholamreza Nazari 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 3 Chapter 1: Research Overview ................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 7 1.2 Problem Statement ....................................................................................................................... 9 1.3 Research Question: ..................................................................................................................... 10 1.4 Research purpose........................................................................................................................ 11 1.5 Research Significance .................................................................................................................. 11 1.6 Topic Selection ............................................................................................................................ 11 1.7 Case Study Organizations ............................................................................................................ 13 1.7.1 Västerås municipality ........................................................................................................... 13 1.7.2 Mälardalen University .......................................................................................................... 14 1.8 Research Limitation ................................................................................................................ 15 1.9 Assumptions of the study ........................................................................................................... 15 1.10 Target audiences ....................................................................................................................... 16 1.11 Organization of the study ......................................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................................ 17 2.1 Green IT Definitions .................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Drivers of Green IT ...................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 Green IT Areas ............................................................................................................................. 19 2.4 Green IT Strategies ...................................................................................................................... 24 2.5 Green IT Adoption ....................................................................................................................... 27 2.6 Models of IT adoption ................................................................................................................. 28 2.6.1 Rogers Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Model ........................................................................ 29 2.6.2 The Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework ........................................... 33 Chapter 3: Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Attributes of Innovation .............................................................................................................. 38 3.1.1 Relative advantage ............................................................................................................... 38 3.1.2 Compatibility ........................................................................................................................ 38 3.1.3 Observability ........................................................................................................................ 39 3.2 Organizational factors ................................................................................................................. 39 3.2.1 Communication level ........................................................................................................... 39 3.2.2 Top management support ................................................................................................... 39 3.2.3 Staff skills ............................................................................................................................. 40 4 3.2.4 IS budget .............................................................................................................................. 40 3.2.5 Organizational slack ............................................................................................................. 40 3.3 Environmental Factors ................................................................................................................ 40 3.3.1 Competitive Pressure ........................................................................................................... 40 3.3.2 Customer Pressure ............................................................................................................... 40 3.3.3 Industry Pressure ................................................................................................................. 41 3.3.4 Governmental Encouragement ............................................................................................ 41 3.4 Green IT strategies ...................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 4. Research Method ............................................................................................................... 44 4.1 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 44 4.2 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................ 45 4.2.1 Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 45 4.2.2 Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 45 4.2.3 Questionnaires ..................................................................................................................... 46 4.2.4 Other sources ....................................................................................................................... 47 4.3 Validity and Reliability ................................................................................................................. 48 CHAPTER 4: Analysis and Findings .......................................................................................................