Digital sustainability, climate change, and information systems solutions: Opportunities for future research

Research on the spatial effect of digital economy development on urban carbon reduction

Cities are one of the main sources of regional carbon emissions, and reducing urban carbon emission is the key to reducing emissions. The digital economy has transformed the economic operation mode, and it is a significant approach to support the "dual carbon goals" (carbon peaking and carbon neutrality). This article considers the externalities of the digital economy and carbon emissions. And we use spatial econometric models to analyze the effectiveness of digital economy in empowering carbon emissions reduction. Besides, we explore the static and dynamic spillover effects, and use spatial Durbin panel quantile model to analyze the digital economy's heterogeneity on carbon emissions. Research has shown that the digital economy has a remarkable carbon reduction effect, and the conclusion remains valid after considering robustness tests such as replacing the weight matrices, calculation methods, and proxy variables. The analysis of static and dynamic spillover effects indicates that the degree of the digital economy's impact on carbon emissions are significantly different. Heterogeneity analysis shows that as the digital economy develops from a low level to a high level, its impact on carbon emissions also shifts from positive promotion to negative suppression. This paper proposes a policy reference to help the development of digital economy and promote carbon neutrality in the face of severe environmental challenges.

Go Green, Go Social: Exploring the Antecedents of Pro-Environmental Behaviors in Social Networking Sites beyond Norm Activation Theory

The paucity of environmental resources and the threatening warning of global climate change have led to increasing research on environmental issues [e.g., pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)]. Although norm activation theory (NAT) is a well-recognized theory for approaching PEBs, existing works appear insufficient to explain PEB in the context of social networking sites (SNSs) without taking contextual, emotional, and social factors into account. Grounded in the egocentric tactician model (ETM), NAT, along with the notions of guilt and social stressors, this study integrates a new ETM path, a supplemented emotional path, alongside the conventional NAT path to achieve a more complete picture of what are crucial determinants of PEBs in the context of SNSs. Social stressors positively moderate the emotional path. Data collected from 897 Facebook users confirm all of our proposed hypotheses. Results indicate that beyond the traditional NAT path, the new ETM path and the emotional path add values to illustrate PEBs on SNSs, and new constructs of self-influence on SNSs (SIS) and guilt remarkably drive PEBs alongside personal norms. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and guidelines for future research are identified.

Digitalisation as the Indicator of the Evidence of Sustainability in the European Union

Digitalisation provides access to an integrated network of information that can benefit society and businesses. However, the evidence of sustainability in business is less researched. In our paper, by building up the research approach, we address the relevant gap by investigating how sustainable development goals represent the interrelationship between digitalisation and sustainability. Such research is particularly important because understandings of digitalisation and sustainability determine how different actors, including business managers and policymakers, act in response to those imperatives to develop future employees skills starting from school age. Following a multi-method approach, we have combined our analysis into two steps examining the relationship between digitalisation and sustainability. Building digital networks, business managers and policy makers using digital means can create some unique opportunities to strategically address sustainable development challenges for the United Nations Targets (SDG) to ensure higher productivity, education, and an equality-oriented society. This point of view describes the potential of digitalisation for society and businesses of the future. The authors revise the links between digitalisation and sustainability in the European Union countries by using data available in Eurostat and UNECE public databases. The two-stage methodology for the identification of the relationship between ICT and sustainability is used in the paper and a linear regression model is applied. The results showed tiers with five SDGs, focusing on business, and all these tiers are fixed in the constructed equations for each SDG. The recommended solution is statistically valid and proves the novelty of this research. Among digitalisation indicators, only mobile-cellular subscriptions and fixed-broadband sub-basket prices in part do not affect researched sustainable development indicators.