Beyond Profit: Exploring the Role of Digital Management in Sustainable Business Development

Dear Colleagues,

In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced global companies to shift operations online, leading to a surge in virtual interactions across various sectors such as education, healthcare, and public administration. The pandemic acted as an unintended experiment, testing the capabilities of existing technologies for remote interactions while exposing their limitations. Knowledge workers, accustomed to occasional remote work, found extended periods of online meetings disruptive, prompting a desire for more in-person interactions.

This text introduces the concept of the “metaverse,” a massively scaled, interoperable network of 3D virtual worlds offering immersive user experiences. High-tech companies, such as Meta and Microsoft, invested heavily in metaverse-related projects, aiming to overcome the 2D limitations of current collaborative technologies. However, questions arise about the metaverse’s ability to bridge the gap between in-person and online interactions and the associated costs.

We can easily highlight the unequal impacts of novel immersive technologies, including virtual, augmented, and mixed reality, in remote work, healthcare, and higher education settings. Issues such as discrimination, privacy concerns, and environmental impacts are discussed, emphasizing the need for strategic solutions to ensure responsible and ethical use of immersive platforms.

This call for papers seeks contributions exploring the future of work with immersive platforms, focusing on innovative practices and addressing potential pitfalls, particularly in the areas of ethics and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). We encourage empirical, theoretical, review, and perspective papers, emphasizing a strong theoretical contribution for empirical works and encouraging a research agenda development for perspective papers. This call stresses the importance of addressing issues associated with remotion (remote working and digitalization) while offering strategic solutions for companies.

Suggest themes:

1. Sustainable Technology Adoption: Strategies for adopting innovative technologies with a focus on minimizing energy consumption and ecological impact.
2. Environmental Impact of Immersive Technologies: Examining the specific ecological consequences associated with the use of energy-intensive immersive platforms.
3. Carbon Footprint Reduction: Exploring methods to measure and reduce the carbon footprint of ongoing technological innovations, particularly those reliant on energy-intensive technologies.
4. Strategic Environmental Planning: Developing strategic plans for companies to balance ongoing innovation goals with environmentally responsible practices.
5. Renewable Energy Integration: Investigating ways to integrate renewable energy sources into the operation of energy-intensive technologies to minimize environmental impact.
6. Corporate Responsibility and Ethics: Addressing the ethical considerations associated with the use of energy-intensive technologies and emphasizing corporate responsibility in reducing environmental harm.
7. Regulatory Compliance: Examining the alignment of immersive technology practices with existing and emerging environmental regulations, with a focus on reducing carbon impact.
8. Inclusive Sustainable Practices: Ensuring that strategies to reduce tension consider inclusivity and accessibility, preventing the exclusion of certain groups or regions from sustainable practices.
9. Immersive Technology’s Role in Environmental Education: Utilizing immersive technologies to raise awareness and educate stakeholders about the environmental impact, fostering a sense of responsibility.
10. Balancing Innovation and Conservation: Finding a delicate balance between encouraging continuous innovation and prioritizing ecological conservation efforts.
11. Energy-Efficient Alternatives: Investigating and promoting alternatives to energy-intensive technologies that still support innovation while minimizing environmental harm.
12. Global Perspectives on Sustainable Technology: Analyzing how different regions and countries approach the tension between innovation and ecological impact, identifying global best practices.
13. Collaborative Industry Initiatives: Encouraging collaboration within industries to collectively address the tension between innovation and ecological impact, sharing insights and best practices.
14. Cost–Benefit Analysis of Sustainable Practices: Evaluating the economic implications of adopting sustainable practices in conjunction with energy-intensive technologies, considering long-term benefits.
15. User Experience in Sustainable Technologies: Exploring how to enhance user experience while transitioning to more sustainable technologies, ensuring that innovation is not compromised in the process of reducing ecological impact.

This research question revolves around mitigating the tension between ongoing technological innovation, often associated with energy-intensive technologies, and the imperative to reduce the ecological impact and carbon footprint of such innovations. This tension arises from the conflict between the drive for continuous innovation and the need for environmental sustainability. This Special Issue emphasizes the environmental consequences of the intense use of virtual realities and immersive technologies in workplaces and educational settings, discussing the significant energy demands and contributions to global warming.

This call for papers seeks solutions to address this tension, focusing on strategies to reconcile ongoing innovation with environmental responsibility. It encourages contributions that explore the ecological impact of immersive technologies, considering issues such as energy consumption, storage requirements, and the associated environmental consequences. Authors are encouraged to propose strategic actions for companies to ensure the ethical and compliant use of immersive platforms in the context of environmental sustainability. This research aims to provide insights into how to navigate the challenges posed by energy-intensive technologies while minimizing their ecological footprint.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jean-Éric Pelet
Guest Editor

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• digital sobriety

• digital transformation
• environmental impact
• carbon footprint
• technological decline
• reduction in the use of technologies
• sustainable society
• use of information technology