Toward a sustainable society in the digital economy

Abstract

Information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) have penetrated into all aspects of our society, calling for extending IS research beyond a focus on economic welfare to take on the broader challenges for social welfare. As prior literature has primarily focused on the economic sustainability, the other two dimensions of sustainability – social and environmental sustainability – still remain unexplored. Following a long-standing tradition of IS discipline that has deployed an IT artifact to solve a problem, this dissertation aims to scrutinize how to improve the social welfare by leveraging advanced technologies. In this dissertation, I present three essays which address the societal impacts of IT-enabled business models and IT investments in the private and public sectors. First, I present empirical evidence on the deterrent effect of IT-enabled ride-sharing platforms on sexual assault occurrence. Second, I evaluate the effectiveness of technical innovations in policing ⸺ body-worn cameras and facial recognition technology. Third, I investigate the impact of cloud computing on energy efficiency. These essays will provide important theoretical and practical implications to leverage the potential of IS and IT for the sustainable society.