How to balance sustainability and profitability in technology organizations: An ambidextrous perspective

Abstract

Technology is the catalyst for sustainable development. In this context, a key challenge for technology organizations is to balance sustainable development with conventional, profit-driven development. However, despite its significance, such a balance has largely been overlooked in the extant literature. In this study, we examine this balance through the novel lens of ambidexterity in order to understand how it is achieved. Accordingly, we conducted a case study at China Mobile, the world's largest telecommunication company, which recently launched a comprehensive Green-IT program with impressive results. Our study focused on four major stakeholders of the program: Top Management Team, Business Units, Supplier Network, and Customer Network. Two models were later derived by means of synthesized analyses of these four stakeholders: the process model, consisting of four phases, depicts an incremental and iterative development process and defines a step-by-step guideline to achieving a sustainable and profitable balance; the integrated model, consisting of four types of ambidexterity, delineates collective actions of the four major stakeholders and defines an overall guideline for them to collaborate. Both models are, to our best knowledge, the first of their kind in this new research field of sustainability and provide significant insights for future exploration. © 1988-2012 IEEE.