Sustainable information systems: a knowledge perspective

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a re‐orientation of the way the concept of sustainability is dealt with in relation to information systems, positioning human behaviour and the processing of knowledge at the centre of the concept.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of sustainability of knowledge (SoK), which refers to processes that govern knowledge, is employed to define sustainable information systems (SIS). Following this definition, knowledge aspects are employed to tackle the notion of sustainability. The sustainability approach presented in this paper is then translated into requirements needed for designing a SIS.FindingsThree knowledge aspects are found to be relevant for the design of SIS: adaptability, offloading and knowledge evaluation. The service oriented‐based architecture (SOA) seems to be appropriate to support the proposed approach.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptual approach proposed need to be evaluated by case studies to be performed in different organizations.Originality/valueA knowledge based perspective is proposed to re‐orient the notion of sustainability. Moreover, an SOA architecture is used to design a system based on the proposed approach.