Businesses utilize information systems (IS) to increase revenues, reduce costs, and spur innovation. IS automate tasks, generate and deliver information, and can transform core value creation processes. As climate change and its associated challenges become increasingly relevant to business enterprises worldwide, IS are a key tool in enabling their response. Prior research shows that IS can either aid or inhibit organizational efforts, yet we do not fully understand their influence in this important context. This dissertation presents three essays examining how IS affects financial market value and greenhouse gas emissions performance in large businesses.
The first essay (Chapter 2) introduces a method utilized in chapter 3. After finding a surprising dearth of international event studies in the IS discipline, a multiple-factor method is selected from related management literature to estimate international financial market reaction. Its performance relative to the commonly-used single-factor model is evaluated with a Monte Carlo analysis. Error correction improvement of the multiple factor model is calculated to be 44%-99% over the single-factor model for conditions observed in world markets 2000-2012.
The second essay (Chapter 3) utilizes the multiple-factor model from chapter 2 to investigate international financial market reaction to Carbon Management Systems (CMS) adoption. CMS, a class of IS, enable the capture and management of carbon footprints. Three main results emerge. First, shareholders do not react positively to CMS announcements, as wealth effects are either not significant or negative, depending on the specification. Second, markets appear to penalize firms in more carbon regulated countries versus others, consistent with theory. Lastly, negative reactions to CMS appear to be dampening over time.
The third essay (Chapter 4) examines the impact of IS on firm GHG emissions for large corporations with a presence in North America. This first-of-its-kind analysis finds interaction effects between GHG reduction plans and the physical deployment scope of ERP modules for Enterprise Support (e.g. HR, Finance, Accounting). Corporations with reduction plans in place and the highest 18% of ES physical scope are associated with reduced CO2 emissions. A one-standard-deviation increase in the ES physical scope deployment measure reduces GHG emissions by 46.63% for these companies.PhDBusiness AdministrationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113461/1/danrush_1.pd
