Pro-environmental user behavior in the lifecycle of consumer electronics

Abstract

Acknowledging environmental sustainability as one of the most critical global challenges in our time, information systems (IS) scholars and practitioners have begun to address environmental problems by developing and implementing various green information systems. Besides pro-environmental IT artifacts, we argue that user-oriented green practices play a crucial role in ameliorating the adverse effects that result from making, using, and disposing electronic devices. To that end, we examine user intentions toward engaging in pro-environmental behaviors that can penetrate the electronic device lifecycle, which includes choosing, using, and disposing such devices. In particular, we adopt the extended theory of planned behavior as a lens and suggest ecological beliefs among users can determine their ecological attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which, in turn, can shape their pro-environmental behavior. Also, ecological knowledge appears to play an influential role in changing user intentions to perform pro-environmental practices. We also revisit relevant green IT and green IS literature while providing future research directions.