Examination of Green IT Adoption in Organizations: Based on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory

Transcription

1 Association for Information Systems AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) PACIS 2017 Proceedings Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) Summer 2017 Examination of Green IT Adoption in Organizations: Based on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory Li-Hui Yu Institute of Information Management National Cheng Kung University, Wei-Tsong Wang National Cheng Kung University, Follow this and additional works at: Recommended Citation Yu, Li-Hui and Wang, Wei-Tsong, "Examination of Green IT Adoption in Organizations: Based on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory" (2017). PACIS 2017 Proceedings This material is brought to you by the Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems (PACIS) at AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). It has been accepted for inclusion in PACIS 2017 Proceedings by an authorized administrator of AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). For more information, please contact

2 Examination of Green IT Adoption in Organizations: Based on the Expectation Disconfirmation Theory Indicate Submission Type: Research-in-Progress Li-Hui Yu Institute of Information Management National Cheng Kung University 1 University Road, Tainan, Taiwan r @mail.ncku.edu.tw Second author s name Department of Industrial and Information Management National Cheng Kung University 1 University Road, Tainan, Taiwan wtwang@mail.ncku.edu.tw Abstract Increasing concerns about climate change mean that more and more enterprises hare adopting green strategies that complement their business, operations, and asset strategies. In addition, as information technology (IT) has permeated business processes and supply chains, the use of socalled Green IT can offer an important way to alleviate climate change reduce costs, and improve their public image. The key points with regard to the use of such technology are employee satisfaction and their continuance usage intention of Green IT. This study thus adopts the expectation disconfirmation theory (EDT) to develop a research model that examines the continuance intention to use Green IT. The research hypotheses derived from this model will be empirically validated using the data collected from employees of organizations that use Green IT. The research results are expected to shed lights on how the key influencing factors of green IT usage, including perceived value, disconfirmation of value, perceived service quality, and disconfirmation of service quality, may influence user satisfaction and continuance intention to use such IT in organizations. As a result, the results of this study can provide managers with guidelines regarding promoting the use of Green IT in their organizations. Keywords: Green IT, expectation disconfirmation theory, satisfaction, continuance intention Introduction Climate anomaly on earth makes people emphasize more on the global warming problem. Sustainable Development of the environment becomes an important issue. The Green movement is regarded as a crucial social movement nowadays (Galtung, 1986; Mathur&Mathur, 2000). In order to balance between economic development and green performance, it is essential to make enterprises electronic and must upgrade its electronic degree continuously. In addition, more and more enterprises start to decrease the environmental carbon footprint which is produced by them. Most of the enterprises all understand the green policy which belongs to enterprises has formed a significant element of enterprise operation and the asset. Besides, green policy represents a part of operating and management and it can help enterprises make the positive decision on the environment (Olson, 2008). On the other hand, information technology plays an important role between enterprise process and supply chain. Additionally, information technology is able to provide solutions to environmental problems and it not only achieve sustainable development of the environment but also save costs for the enterprises. Hence, green information technology (Green IT) is developed. Because green information technology saves costs and upgrade image for enterprises, it adopts gradually by the enterprises. However, the success of Green IT relies on employee satisfaction and continued use within the internal enterprise. Through green information technology, enterprises will have benefits. Therefore, this study adopts the expectancy disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1977; Oliver, 1980) to investigate use satisfaction and the intention to continuance use of Green IT. In summary, the concept of environmental awareness and energy saving with carbon emission reduction has become a hot issue recently. If enterprises can continue to use green information technology, they will acquire benefits. Hence, employees play key roles on the satisfaction and the Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi

3 intention to continuance use of Green IT. In order to understand users adoption of Green IT, this study adopts expectancy disconfirmation theory (Oliver, 1980) as the theoretical base to develop a research model that explains user satisfaction and continuance use of Green IT. Research Background Green IT Green IT enables the organization to be friendly with the environment through applying to information technology. Therefore, Green IT is regarded as a special information technology. Furthermore, information system researchers should understand the influence between organizations and the environment when adopting Green IT. Green IT represents different meanings for different people. Green IT is considered to be the best utilization when enterprises use information technology. Besides, it takes advantage of information technology to manage enterprises operation and supply chain efficiently in order to decrease how enterprises operation impacts on the environment and achieve sustainable development of the environment. Murugesan (2008) defines Green IT as a study and practice which used to designing, producing, using and handling computers, servers and related system(display device, printer, storage device, internet and communication system and so on) efficiently and validly. In addition, it causes less influence on the environment. Murugensan (2008) also pointed out that Green IT is dedicated to fulfilling economic long-term development and raise the performance and utilization of the system. Besides, Green IT will follow our social and moral responsibility as well. Hence, the facets of Green IT include environmental continuance, economic energy efficiency and total cost of ownership which consists of disposal cost and recycling. Molla et al. (2009) consider Green IT to be an ability of organizing, applying systematically to designing, producing, purchasing, using and discarding of information technology. In addition, it meets the standardization of sustainable development of the environment (such as pollution control, product management and cleantech) and defines two facets which are (reach) and (rich) of Green IT. Reach means that the penetrated degree of the process which is involved in purchasing, using and ending when Green IT is within information technology activity chain of the organization, while rich shows that Green IT policy for the organizations, the maturity of execution and technology. Furthermore, they combine reach with rich and categorize the policy and activity of Green IT within the organizations. The discussion above shows that the definition of Green IT is diverse, and its coverage includes not only the program of technological solution but also enterprise policies. In this study Green IT is considered to be a kind of information technology infrastructure that includes hardware, software, the internet and data handling construction for improving the effectiveness of energy use and for ensuring the continuous development of the environment (Zhu, 2004). Jorgensen and Jorgensen (2009) investigate potential environmental risks that are related to information technology and suggest that the development of the relationship between technology and society can be addressed from the perspective of pursuing green environment while using IT. Additionally, Hopper and Rice (2008) show that how to achieve the best system power consumption using Green IT to reduce the operation costs of the enterprises. Expectation Disconfirmation Theory Expectation Disconfirmation Theory (EDT) which is proposed by Oliver (1980) evaluates customer satisfaction, includes factors of expectations, perceived quality, disconfirmation, and satisfaction. The central premise of the EDT is that customers satisfaction is determined by their evaluation of the discrepancy (disconfirmation) between their expectations for a specific product/service, which are formed prior to purchase, and the perceived quality of the product/service after consumption. Based on the EDT, there are two primary factors which would affect satisfaction, namely the performancespecific expectation and expectancy disconfirmation. To be specific, satisfaction can be considered to be the outcome of the function of expectancy, perceived quality/performance, and disconfirmation. Expectations refer to a consumer s anticipation with regard to the quality of a product/entity based on his or her prior consumption/use experience and/or the information acquired in the market (Churchill & Surprenant, 1982). Perceived quality, which is also referred to as perceived performance and attribute performance, refers to an individual s evaluation of a recent consumption/use Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi

4 experience with regard to a particular product/entity. Disconfirmation represents the gap between prior expectation and the actual performance/quality of the focal product/service. Oliver (1977) points out the people would have expectation before they make contact with persons and things. After they contact with them, people would have compared mental behavior (i.e., confirmation). Additionally, Churchill and Surprenant (1982) argue that a consumer s expectations are confirmed when a product performs as expected, negatively disconfirmed when the product performs more poorly than expected, and positively confirmed when the product performs better than expected. The EDT has been widely adopted or extended to study research subjects related to the investigation and evaluation of factors influencing the individuals IT usage intentions, and has shown promising results in terms of explaining and predicting IT users behavioral intentions (Bhattacherjee & Premkumar, 2004; Chiu et al., 2005; Doong & Lai, 2008; Premkumar & Bhattacherjee, 2008). For example, Chiu et al. (2005) use EDT to investigate the intention to continuance use of e-learning systems and how user satisfaction of e-learning systems impact the intention to continue to use e- learning systems. In their study, satisfaction is found to be influenced by the disconfirmation which produced by anticipation and perceived performance, and these authors thus adopt the constructs of perceived usability, perceived quality, and perceived value to represent the perceived performance of e-learning systems. Their research results indicate that disconfirmation significantly affects user satisfaction, which subsequently influences the intention to continue to use e-learning systems. Antecedents of Satisfaction of Green IT Users A significant number of prior studies identify perceived value and perceived service quality to be key determinants of satisfaction of IT users (Cronin et al., 2000; Kuo et al., 2009; Lai,2004; McDougall & Levesque, 2000). Perceived value is often used to evaluate the difference between perceived quality and perceived sacrifice (Zeithaml, 1988). In other words, perceived sacrifice which is perceived the loss degree of monetary and non-monetary at the same time (Zeithaml, 1988). Bolton and Drew(1991) argue that we can measure the perceptions of customers regarding the overall service performance from perceived value. Parasuraman and Grewal (2000) define perceived value as the combination to get (buyers acquisition from sellers) and give (buyers monetary and/or non-monetary costs regarding a transaction with sellers). Consequently, perceived value can be considered to be a holistic and reliable measure for individuals overall perception regarding an exchange activity (Wang, 2008). In recent years, the provision of information technologies/systems has constantly been treated as a service-base business model, and is thus regarded as a service. In this study, we define Green IT as the infrastructure of organizations, which can be considered to be a service as well. Organizations adoption of Green IT tends to focus on achieving the purpose of cost reduction via the provision of information for supporting decision-making, efficient use of IT assets and infrastructure, facilitation of intra/inter-organizational collaboration, and the development of competitive products and services. We can thus argue that service quality is one of the important components of Green IT. Lai (2004) adopts service quality and perceived value (as internal factors) as antecedents of user satisfaction and users intention to use mobile text message services (as external behaviors), and finds that both service quality and perceived value have significant influences on customer satisfaction and thus indirectly influence user intentions. With reference to the EDT and the works of Chiu et al. (2005) and Lai (2004), this study develops a research model in which two constructs of perceived value and perceive service quality are adopted to represent the constructs of perceived performance in the original EDT and to measure the effects of the disconfirmation of those two factors on satisfaction and continuance intentions of Green IT users. Research Model Based on the discussion above, we develop a research model for understanding the adoption of Green IT in organizations based on the EDT, as presented in Figure 1. The hypotheses developed are presented as follows: H1a: Perceived value of Green IT services positively influence user satisfaction regarding such services H1b: Perceived value of Green IT services positively influence users positive disconfirmation of the perceived value regarding such services H2a: Perceived service quality of Green IT services positively influence user satisfaction regarding such services Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi

5 H2b: Perceived service quality of Green IT services positively influence users positive disconfirmation of the perceived service quality regarding such services H3: Users positive disconfirmation of the perceived value regarding Green IT services positively influence user satisfaction regarding such services H4: Users positive disconfirmation of the perceived service quality regarding Green IT services positively influence user satisfaction regarding such services H5: User satisfaction regarding Green IT services positively influence users continuance intention regarding such services Conclusion Figure 1. The Research Model Green IT can save cost for enterprises, which contributes to the constant promotion of organizations to develop and use of the Green IT. In addition, Green IT not only reduces environmental impact of enterprise development but also promotes the favorable corporate image of the enterprises. Therefore, the study investigates the satisfaction of Green IT and the employees intention to continue to use the Green IT in order to figure out the key factors influencing the continued use of such technologies. The results are expected to offer significant theoretical and practical implications. First, while EDT has already been applied successfully to predict the intention to continuance use of information technology, this study adopt the EDT and identifies perceived value and perceived service quality as key factors influencing Green IT adoption in order to investigate the effects of those factors and their degrees of disconfirmation on user satisfaction and continuance intention of Green IT. Therefore, the results of this study will not only confirms that whether perceived value and perceived service quality have their significant effects on user satisfaction and continuance intention in the context of Green IT usage, but also provide us with insights into the significance of the use of the EDT in investigating issues that are related or similar to Green IT adoption. Additionally, the results are expected to offer implications to practitioners regarding the concepts of perceived value, perceived service quality, and the degrees of their disconfirmation. For example, if enterprises want to promote the usage of Green IT, they may want to put efforts into improving the service support to their employees and to promote the values, both for individuals and for the Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi

6 organizations, of continued use of Green IT. From the perspective of perceived value, they can design corporate policies and operating procedures to improve the effectiveness of the operation of Green IT in order to operate it more easily and time-saving. Additionally, form the perspective of service quality, enterprises can develop training programs for the technical support staff of Green IT to equip those service personnel with sufficient knowledge dealing with the obstacles that are associated with the use of Green IT and with capabilities of identifying users actual individual needs with regard to Green IT usage. In this way, they can significantly improve the technical service quality and thus promote the use of Green IT. To further enhance the potential contribution of this study, more research efforts should be devoted into refining the proposed by identifying additional variables which can enhance the ability of the proposed research model to explain and predict individuals intention to adopt Green IT, such as the factors that are related to the concept of user-perceived functional affordances of IT or information systems (Seidel et al., 2013). Acknowledgements The author thanks the coordinators of the PACIS conference for their support. The author also thanks the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on this paper. This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number: MOST H MY3]. References Bhattacherjee, A., and Premkumar, G Understanding changes in belief and attitude toward information technology usage: A theoretical model and longitudinal test, MIS Quarterly (28), pp Bolton, R. N., and Drew, J. H A multistage model of customers' assessments of service quality and value, Journal of Consumer Research (17), pp Chiu, C. M., Hsu, M. H., Sun, S. Y., Lin, T. C., and Sun, P. C Usability, quality, value and e- learning continuance decisions, Computers & Education (45), pp Churchill, G. A., and Surprenant, C An investigation into the determinants of customer satisfaction, Journal of Marketing Research (19), pp Cronin, J. J., Brady, M. K., and Hult, G. T. M Assessing the effects of quality, value, and customer satisfaction on consumer behavioral intentions in service environments, Journal of Retailing (76), pp Doong, H. S., and Lai, H Exploring usage continuance of e-negotiation systems: expectation and disconfirmation approach, Group Decision and Negotiation (17), pp Galtung, J The green movement: A socio-historical explanation, International Sociology (1), pp Hopper, A., and Rice, A Computing for the future of the planet, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences (366), pp Jorgensen, M. S., and Jorgensen, U Green technology foresight of high technology: A social shaping of technology approach to the analysis of hopes and hypes, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management (21), pp Kuo, Y. F., Wu, C. M., and Deng, W. J The relationships among service quality, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and post-purchase intention in mobile value-added services, Computers in Human Behavior (25), pp Lai, T. L Service quality and perceived value's impact on satisfaction, intention and usage of short message service (SMS), Information Systems Frontiers (6), pp Mathur, L. K., and Mathur, I An analysis of the wealth effects of green marketing strategies, Journal of Business Research (50), pp McDougall, G. H. G., and Levesque, T Customer satisfaction with services: Putting perceived value into the equation, Journal of Services Marketing (14), pp Molla, A., Pittayachawan, S., Corbitt, B., and Deng, H "An international comparison of green IT diffusion," International Journal of e-business Management (3:2), pp Murugesan, S Harnessing green it: Principles and practices, IT Professional (10), pp Oliver, R. L Effect of expectation and disconfirmation on postexposure product evaluations: An alternative interpretation, Journal of Applied Psychology (62), pp Oliver, R. L A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions, Journal of Marketing Research (17), pp Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi

7 Olson, E. G Creating an enterprise-level" green" strategy, Journal of Business Strategy (29), pp Parasuraman, A., and Grewal, D The impact of technology on the quality-value-loyalty chain: A research agenda, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (28), pp Premkumar, G., and Bhattacherjee, A Explaining information technology usage: A test of competing models, Omega (36), pp Seidel, S., Recker, J., and vom Brocke, J Sensemaking and sustainable practicing: Functional affordances of information systems in green transformations, MIS Quarterly (37), pp Wang, Y. S Assessing e-commerce systems success: a respecification and validation of the DeLone and McLean model of IS success, Information Systems Journal (18), pp Zeithaml, V. A Consumer perceptions of price, quality, and value: a means-end model and synthesis of evidence, Journal of Marketing (52), pp Zhu, K The complementarity of information technology infrastructure and e-commerce capability: A resource-based assessment of their business value, Journal of Management Information Systems (21), pp Twenty First Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Langkawi