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Green information systems use in social enterprise: the case of a community-led eco-localization website in the West Midlands region of the UK

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Abstract

This study examines the intention of environmentally-oriented social enterprises to continue using Green IS (an eco-localization website here) in Herefordshire located in the West Midlands region of the United Kingdom. The Herefordshire Greenlinks (HGL) Association is a local business community that operates primarily through the HGL Website in order to help local social enterprises find and trade local eco-friendly goods and services. It is an example of a “market-based” approach to solving social and environmental issues that is inspired by a bottom-up view of community development and eco-localization. Based on the theory of uses and gratification of media use and the new environmental paradigm, we propose a research model that outlines the various factors contributing to intention to continue using an eco-localization website. The research model and its associated hypotheses were empirically tested using a dataset generated from a survey of 83 small social enterprises. The results demonstrate the importance of three different types of gratification – content, social and performance gratification as well as users’ environmental concerns in determining the intention to continue using an eco-localization website. This study contributes to the Green IS literature by extending research to the social sector environment, and it also provides practical insight for designers of such community-led eco-localization websites.

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Notes

  1. http://www.herefordshiregreenlinks.info/

  2. http://www.foe.co.uk/

  3. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/first-steps-sme-sustainability-campaign

  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPuRjiAdZZw

  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2M7sT37Nk8

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of MIS, University of Illinois at Springfield, One University Plaza, MS UHB 4043, Springfield, IL, 62703-5407, USA

    Roya Gholami, Alemayehu Molla, Suparna Goswami & Christopher Brewster

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  1. Roya Gholami
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  2. Alemayehu Molla
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  3. Suparna Goswami
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  4. Christopher Brewster
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Correspondence to Roya Gholami.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 6 Respondents’ industry
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Table 7 Respondents’ Annual Turnover
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Table 8 Level of internet and IT knowledge in the firm
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Table 9 Information about HGL
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Appendix 2 Herman one factor test for common method bias

Table 10 Total variance explained
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Gholami, R., Molla, A., Goswami, S. et al. Green information systems use in social enterprise: the case of a community-led eco-localization website in the West Midlands region of the UK. Inf Syst Front 20, 1345–1361 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-016-9733-z

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