Banking on Green Information Systems: An exploratory case study of a Norwegian bank facilitating sustainability accounting and reporting

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how an incumbent financial institution intend to overcome inhibiting legacy systems to facilitate sustainability accounting and reporting, a relatively new phenomenon in its infancy in IS research. In doing so, this study focuses on two underlying sub-questions covering drivers and inhibitors of Green IS adoption within the Norwegian banking industry, in addition to the facilitation of sustainability accounting and reporting from an IS perspective. The research into these topics is addressed by interviewing six industry-experts within a Norwegian bank, resulting in two aggregated analytical dimensions with valuable empirical outcomes. Findings from this study indicate that regulatory pressure is the most significant driver of Green IS adoption with varying degree of emphasis on stakeholder pressure, economic incentives, and manual processes. Whereas inherent limitations with IT infrastructure and current ESG data deficiencies are identified as inhibiting factors, which subsequently explains the making of an ESG data task force initiative tasked with building an ESG data hub to facilitate sustainability accounting and reporting. The bank’s proposed ESG data hub architecture leveraging a PaaS solution provide valuable managerial implications for practitioners in other financial institutions that could opt for a similar Green IS approach.