Sustainable business events demand the commitment of event practitioners. Information technology is used in mitigating the process of sustainable business events.  Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the role of information technology in the process of organizing a business event as it was found that there is lack of knowledge on how to organize a sustainable business event in the Malaysian context.  It was found that using information technology assists the process of organizing an event through the use of several technological devices and reducing the use of paper.  For this reason, inductive methods with 14 informants were studied involving company directors, event managers, venue providers, event delegates and event suppliers.  It was found that the role of information technology is important to mitigate the process of organizing a business event. Triangulation was used to ensure the reliability of the findings and members’ check and interview protocols were used for validation purposes.  The constant comparison on method of analysis was used to analyze information that result from semi-structured interview. Keywords: Sustainable business event, process, inductive, constant comparison and information technolog

Abdul Aziz, Yuhanis

Awang, Khairil Wahidin

Samdin, Zaiton

Zamzuri, Norol Hamiza

English

Universiti Teknologi MARA Institutional Repository

52
Sustainable Business Events and Usage of Information Technology
Norol Hamiza Zamzuri1, Khairil Wahidin Awang2, Yuhanis Abdul Aziz3 and Zaiton Samdin4
1Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 43000 Puncak Alam, Selangor
norol@puncakalamuitm.edu.my
2 3 Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2khairil@upm.edu.my; 3yuhanis@econ.upm.edu.my
4 Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor
zaisa@putra.upm.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Sustainable business events demand the commitment 
of event practitioners. Information technology is used 
in mitigating the process of sustainable business 
events.  Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the 
role of information technology in the process of 
organizing a business event as it was found that there 
is lack of knowledge on how to organize a 
sustainable business event in the Malaysian context.  
It was found that using information technology 
assists the process of organizing an event through the 
use of several technological devices and reducing the 
use of paper.  For this reason, inductive methods with 
14 informants were studied involving company
directors, event managers, venue providers, event 
delegates and event suppliers.  It was found that the 
role of information technology is important to 
mitigate the process of organizing a business event.
Triangulation was used to ensure the reliability of the 
findings and members’ check and interview protocols 
were used for validation purposes.  The constant 
comparison on method of analysis was used to 
analyze information that result from semi-structured 
interview.
Keywords: Sustainable business event, process, 
inductive, constant comparison and information 
technology
1.0 BUSINESS EVENTS
The exploration of a sustainable business event
process begins by discussing the growth of business 
events that creates a positive impact on the economy
and society.  The discussion also elaborates on the 
negative environmental impact that results from 
business event activities. Malaysia was at number 29 
in the world ranking and number 7 in the Asia Pacific 
ranking for organizing business events.  By 
comparing cities, Kuala Lumpur is 21st in the world 
ranking and 5th in the Asia Pacific ranking (Malaysia 
Convention and Exhibition Report, 2010; 2011).  It is 
also estimated that the economic impact value of 
international business tourism for 2010 was more 
than RM17.6 billion (Malaysia Convention and 
Exhibition Report, 2010; 2011).  It was estimated that 
between January 2012 and December 2015, MyCeb 
would have secured some 45 major business events. 
These events are estimated to produce a revenue of 
RM597 million (Performance Management Delivery 
Unit, 2012).  This number shows that there is a 
growing demand for organizing business events in 
Malaysia.
2.0 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 
AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN 
BUSINESS EVENTS
In a book entitled Green Impact: Low Carbon Green 
Growth, which was published by the Ministry of 
Energy, Green Technology and Water, Malaysia and 
Green Purchasing Network Malaysia in the year 
2010, p. 84, “In order for energy efficiency to take 
on, there needs to be a higher level of awareness, 
firstly, of what energy efficiency is all about and 
secondly, on how it will profit owners and users”.  
Therefore, it can be said that energy efficiency 
practices among event organizers is one of the 
processes involved in organizing a business event.  
The awareness among event practitioners about the 
importance of energy efficiency practices during 
business event activities is vital to ensure the success 
of organizing a sustainable business event.  Efficient 
53
energy practice is also related to the use of 
information technology specifically the use of system 
applications. This is because the use of system 
applications such as the registration system; namely, 
EventPro and the use of digital board are examples of 
the role of technology in the process of organizing a 
sustainable event.  However, it seems that there is 
lack of discussion on the use of information 
technology in business events; therefore, the aim of 
this paper is to explore the role of information 
technology in the process of sustainable business 
events.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
The inductive method was chosen as it provides a 
better view of the phenomenon.  Yin (2009) has
illustrated this by saying that the inductive method 
provides an in-depth discussion on issues. 
Rittichainuwat and Mair (2012) suggested this 
method for future research related to their study 
because according to them the qualitative method 
will provide better insight on an issue.  For this 
reason, the inductive or qualitative method was 
chosen for this study.  As mentioned by Creswell 
(2012), four to five interviewees are enough for data 
to achieve its saturation point. This study achieved its 
saturation point only after analyzing all the 14
interviewees as all the information obtained from the 
interviewees were triangulated.  Triangulation is also 
one of the strategies used to ensure that the data are
valid.  Yin (2009) discussed this and found that the 
triangulation method confirms the validity of the 
data.  Semi-structured interviews are used as they
give a chance for an interviewer to obtain in-depth
information about an issue as the researcher is not 
knowledgeable enough about a phenomenon to ask 
relevant questions and it is usually used at an early 
stage of a study (Merriam, 2009).   This study applied 
the one-to-one interview approach, which is a data 
collection process that enables the researcher to ask 
questions and record the answers from one 
participant at a time.  This type of interview is 
suitable for participants who are not hesitant to speak, 
who are articulate, and who can share ideas 
comfortably (Creswell, 2012) The semi-structured 
interview outline was included in the interview 
protocol.  An interview protocol uses a set of 
procedures and queries that is applied during an 
interview (Yin, 2009). The interview protocol 
includes a range of questions to gauge the 
interviewee's opinions on the process of organizing a 
sustainable event.  Merriam (2009) described the list 
of questions to be asked during an interview as an 
interview guideline.
“The interview guideline will probably 
contain several specific questions that you 
want to ask everyone, some more open-
ended questions that could be followed up 
with some probing and perhaps a list of 
some areas, topics and issues that you want 
to know more about but do not have enough 
information at the outset of your study to 
form specific questions”, p. 103.
Initially, interviewees were asked open questions 
about the idea of organizing a green event among the 
employees.  The open question is designed to enable 
interviewees to give their own views and opinions 
before any specific question is given to them (Mair & 
Jago, 2010).  In addition, interviewees were asked 
questions that were pertinent to their experience in 
organizing a sustainable event at their firm, with the 
intention of gauging any issues during the process of 
organizing a green event.  The semi-structured 
questions are guided by literature.  Semi-structured 
questions are between structured and less structured 
interview questions and all questions are flexible in 
order to gauge the individual’s experience.  It 
involves structured questions that were prepared 
before the interview and less structured questions, 
which were actually open questions that provide fresh 
insights and new information (Merriam, 2009). Apart 
from semi-structured interview, data collection was 
also based on observation carried out by using field
notes, which would ensure the reliability of the data. 
During the data analysis, they were analyzed by 
categorizing the code based on interview
transcriptions and field notes.  The data that was 
produced during the interview were triangulated, 
together with all the information produced from event 
managers, company directors and associations. This 
study involved 14 event practitioners; namely event 
managers, event suppliers and company directors.
For confidentiality purposes, their personal details are 
represented by using acronyms.  The list of 
informants is listed in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1:  List of Informants
Person’s 
code
Position Company
A1 Director A
A2 Event Manager A
A3 Event Manager A
54
Person’s 
code
Position Company
A4 Event Manager A
P1 Event Manager C
P2 Event Manager D
P3 Event Manager E
P4 Event Manager F
P5 Event Manager G
P6 Event Manager H
P7 Event Manager I
B1 Convention Centre 
Manager
J
B9 Director K
B2 Event Executive L
Note:  14 informants 
ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software was used 
to identify the codes and themes.  ATLAS.ti keeps 
track of all data and they are saved in a container 
called hermeneutic unit or HU.  HU can be 
understood as a container which holds everything that 
needs to be interpreted such as quotes, codes, words, 
notes, memo links, code families and super codes 
(Friese, 2012).
4.0 RESULT
The result is illustrated below.
Table 4.1: The use of Information Technology
Note: Result from data collection
55
The use of information technology during business 
event activities helps the cause of greening.  This is 
acknowledged by P4, “As far as knowledge of the 
event is concerned, we introduce the technology 
earlier since the use of technology is important for 
greening”.  The use of registration software and 
several mediums of communication assisted in 
ensuring the efficiency of an event (refer photo 1).
Photo 1
Note: Based on researcher’s personal photo 
collection
The use of several information technology devices 
creates paperless environment and this indirectly 
creates sustainable business environment. The use of 
information technology was seen during one of the 
events organized at the event venue.
A registration system based on information 
technology was used to keep track of the number of 
conference participants registered as well as for 
security purposes.  However, based on observation 
during the event, although the purpose of the system 
is to assist the registration, the conference 
participants’ attitude hindered the effectiveness of 
such system.  This is because registration was 
instructed to be done a day before the actual event.  
However, most of the conference participants 
registered only on the day itself. This scenario 
indicates that although the purpose of using 
information technology is good, uncooperative 
attitude of participants will not lead to an event’s
success.
Apart from the issue of achieving efficiency from the 
use of information technology, the discussion 
revealed by P4 shows that the use of technology is 
important as one of the processes in reducing the use 
of paper.  As mentioned by P4, “We use registration 
software such as event prop, because, as you know if 
the conference is attended by more than 500 people, 
the organizers would print at least 2000 registration 
copies”.  This was agreed upon by PA2, “We email 
the program book and burn it on a CD upon request, 
if they request the program book we give the CD, we 
do print but the copies are limited”.  The discussion 
indicates that the use of information technology may 
reduce the use of paper and assist in reducing time to
disseminate information. 
This shows that one of the processes in practicing 
sustainability is from the use of information 
technology by event practitioners. The use of email, 
websites and event software is a push factor that 
drives the use of technology for event promotions 
(Arcodia & Dickson, 2010).  This is also the same 
strategy used by event organizers when promoting 
their event by using information technology such as 
the social media, through the use of Facebook, 
Twitter and LinkedIn.
According to Lee and Tyrrell (2013);
“Increased use of social networking media for 
meeting planners has been motivated both by the on-
going economic recession and the dynamic 
behavioural adjustments of meeting planners in terms 
of social media use. The implication is that 
promotion of social media by meeting planners will 
be most effective if it stresses the number of planners 
who have already adopted the technology and the 
usefulness in the planning process. The results of this 
study indicated that the ease of use strongly 
influenced adoption of social media as a tool. Thus, 
when promoting the use of social media to meeting 
planners, aspects of convenience and fun should be 
emphasized” (p.16).
The discussion revealed that the use of information 
technology helps in driving the process of greening 
an event. Thus, the use of several event materials was 
replaced by several paperless technologies such as 
corporate and social media software.  Based on this, 
it can be stated that green information technology 
devices assist in reducing wasteful consumptions. 
The practice of using information technology devices 
56
is observed from the practices at the convention 
centre and Company A. Several event organizers 
confirmed the use of information technology in their 
office. This highlights the usage of information 
technology as one of the processes in organizing a 
sustainable business event. However, there is lack of 
information on green practices on events’ websites
organized by event organizers in Malaysia.  One of 
the reasons based on the interview with some of the 
event organizers was the aim of the event, which was 
to make profits and green practices are not the main 
motivator in organizing an event. As said by P5, 
“When organizing events, the emphasis is on profits 
and implementing sustainability might defer the aim 
of gaining profits”.  The discussion emphasizes the 
use of information technology as one of the processes 
of organizing a sustainable business event.  However, 
the event organizers did not highlight the assimilation 
of green practices during an event by using the 
website.  This is actually similar to the discussion 
made by Dickson and Arcodia (2010) who mentioned 
that website was not used in disseminating 
information about green practices among event 
companies. 
5.0 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE 
RESEARCH AND LIMITATION OF 
THIS STUDY
Based on the discussion above, the role of 
information technology has an influence on the 
commitment towards a sustainable business event
among stakeholders. The study is limited to the 
business event sector in the context of Malaysia, 
therefore, future research should explore other 
geographical areas and other types of event.
References
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research 
Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating 
Quantitative and Qualitative Research. 
Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Boije, H. (2010). Analysis in Qualitative Research. 
Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Lee, W., & Tyrrell, T. (2013). Exploring the 
behavioral aspects of adopting technology 
critical mass, 4(1), 6–22. 
doi:10.1108/17579881311302329
Mair, J., & Jago, L. (2010). The development of a 
conceptual model of greening in the business 
events tourism sector. Journal of Sustainable 
Tourism, 18(1), 77–94. 
doi:10.1080/09669580903291007
Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative Research: A 
Guide to Design and Implementation. San 
Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Rittichainuwat, B., & Mair, J. (2012). An Exploratory 
Study of Attendee Perceptions of Green 
Meetings. Journal of Convention & Event 
Tourism, 13(3), 147–158. 
doi:10.1080/15470148.2012.706786
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case Study Research Design and 
Methods. London: Sage Publications Ltd.


Sustainable business eventsand usage of information technology / Norol Hamiza Zamzuri … [et al.]

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Sustainable business eventsand usage of information technology / Norol Hamiza Zamzuri … [et al.]

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