Thesis

The role of digital innovation in firms to drive their sustainability performance

Digital innovations are an essential factor for companies to maintain their competitive edge. Digital innovations come in many different forms. From product-based digital innovations to comprehensively rethought business models, such as the sale of digital products in the metaverse. Many of these application areas affect the sustainability performance of companies. For example, more efficient digital processes can reduce the consumption of resources. On the other hand, energy costs for server parks also climb with increasing digitalization.
In this thesis, a structured and literature-based approach is to be used to shed light on the positive and negative influences of digital innovations on the sustainability performance of companies. In addition, the study aims to reveal which measurement methods have been used to capture digital innovations as well as sustainability performance.

Related literature:
- Industry 4.0 technologies assessment: A sustainability perspective (Bai, Chunguang; Dallasega, Patrick; Orzes, Guido; Sarkis, Joseph), 2020
- Information Systems Innovation for Environmental Sustainability (Melville, Nigel), 2010
- Aligning digitalisation and sustainable development? Evidence from the analysis of worldviews in sustainability reports (Niehoff, Silke), 2022

Keywords: Digital innovation; Sustainability, Firm performance, Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)