Understanding the Role of Decision Support Systems in Green IS Research: Literature Review and Research Agenda

Klör Benjamin

Abstract

Green information systems (IS) can contribute to more sustainable actions in a globalized and complex business environment. Since sustainable actions can only result from a pluralistic decision-making process, researchers agree that decision support systems (DSSs) in particular are important for green IS research. Because this research field has grown during the last decade, we set out to identify the contribution of DSS research conducted in green IS research. We conducted a structured literature review to reveal currently available DSSs contributions, their structure, and impact. The applied literature search and selection process identified 23 papers to be relevant to the review. A concept-centric literature analysis revealed that many DSS contributions conduct design research and demonstrate the addressed research problems' feasibility by implemented DSS prototypes. However, the literature review identifies a lack of subscription to green IS research. Despite numerous "green" DSSs are available in the literature, their subscription to the field of green IS research is missing. Finally, a research agenda is conceptualized for systematizing future DSS research in the domain of green IS research. Further research should increase the number of contributions conducting design-oriented research that should mainly result in software implementations to demonstrate the solutions' feasibility and "green" utility.