IT, Proactive Environmental Strategy and Firm Performance: A Resource-based Analysis

The study of the relationships between information technology (IT), environmental organizational issues and performance is a cutting-edge research topic for information systems (IS) research. However, at present we know very little about these relationships. Drawing on the perspective of IT-enabled capabilities and the literature on organizations and the natural environment, our study introduces the construct capability of proactive corporate environmental strategy (ES) to the IS community. Through a resource-based analysis, we propose that IT capability may enable the implementation of a proactive ES and that this strategy could play a significant role in determining the business value of IT. Using structural equations modelling (SEM) with data collected from 63 firms, we find that IT capability is an enabler of proactive ES and that this strategy plays a significant role in mediating the effects of IT capability on firm performance.