Environmental issues and the information technology industry essays on branding and product development

Sammanfattning: The information technology industry has played a critical role in enabling economic development and advancing living standards around the world for the last 50 years. While the contributions of IT have benefited all of us, the technologies have also generated huge quantities of electronic waste, and consumed significant energy. The manufacturing and production of IT related products and services consume large quantities of natural resources and generate enormous amounts of pollutants in the environment. The advent of the Internet, the PC revolution, and the communications evolution converged in the last several years to provide an unprecedented level of access for individual consumers to real-time information wherever they are through the use of smartphones and related technologies. Devices such as these have a short, finite service life, and are often part of a planned obsolescence product introduction cycle. It is clear that progress will mean even more consumer electronic devices in the future and unfortunately we do not currently have effective solutions to deal the consequences of such growth. Turning the tide on such a significant trend will require determination and cooperation of governments, industry, and consumers around the world. As a society we are only beginning to tackle this global challenge. This dissertation consists of five essays that cover the gambit of green issues and the development of products, applications and brands. It will first look at green branding efforts by IT companies and how discrepancies between consumer perceptions and substantiated environmental performance can have important managerial implications. While technologies such as smartphones contribute to the overall e-waste challenge, they can also play an important part in enabling sustainable consumption strategies by organizations and individuals. The effectiveness of green branding can also be measured concretely in social media. Such brand perception data are extremely useful to the design of brand strategies. Lastly, the ability for IT vendors to communicate their environmental commitment is crucial for any branding efforts. Readability is a key measure of the effectiveness of written communication and the readability of corporate environmental mission statements will be examined. This dissertation will conclude with and identification of managerial implications, an acknowledgement of the limitations, and an outlining of directions for future research.