IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019 - 35

nformation systems (IS) play an increasing role for individual well-being [3], for
the environment [4], and for society at
large [5]. Considering sustainability in IS
development is therefore becoming paramount. However, companies today associate sustainability with extra cost and
burden on their operations. As a result, many view
sustainability more as a demand and a challenge
rather than an opportunity. In this article, we argue that companies should rethink this attitude,
as both sustainability and a business model can
be understood as deeply rooted in human values.
This argument is based on the customer value framework, which suggests that the core business of a company is to create value for customers. The accumulation
of created values is called a "customer value proposition" and stands at the core of any business model [51].
Typically, it is the goal of a company to develop a
unique customer value proposition to differentiate itself
from competition. Against this background we argue
that focusing on human values related to sustainability
in IS design provides a great opportunity for competitive differentiation.
We build on a widely accepted definition of sustainable development as a "development that meets
the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs"
[1, p. 2]. This definition comprises two parts of equal
importance: first, the meeting of current human
needs and second the care for long-term side effects
of products and services. The meeting of current
needs is what companies typically strive for, because
it is their excelling at this task that makes customers
initially buy and consume their services. This is true
for information systems or digital services just as
much as it is for classic products. For example, a
platform offering a privacy-protection option corresponds to the immediate need of customers to have
their privacy. This illustrates that needs result from a
noticed absence or desire for the presence of a
value. Humans strive for values such as privacy or
health and if they perceive a lack thereof, they develop a need, which motivates them to act [53].
The second part of the sustainability definition
considers the needs of future generations. It asks
system or product designers to anticipate the longterm effects of what they build. Value based thinking helps to anticipate what can go wrong [2] and
thereby helps to anticipate potential negative effects.
For example, a sustainable design effort would not
only consider functionality, but would also focus
on the value of health and try to reduce potential
health issues.
SEPTEMBER 2019

∕

An underestimated challenge for companies is to
figure out which values are important to consider as
relevant for their systems and to develop a respective
value proposition for their customers. There exist more
or less complete value lists stemming from the value
sensitive design (VSD) community or currently popular
debates on ethically aligned artificial intelligence (AI)
development. But all of these lists are more or less
complete and none of them are systematically derived
from any grander framework. So if IS designers chose
to reflect on values for their respective service or product context and want to mirror their thoughts upon
existing value overview lists, they can hardly know
what source to turn to. This article hopes to fill this
gap of source.

Focusing on human values related to
sustainability in information systems
design provides an opportunity for
competitive differentiation.

Guidance is given as to which set of values fosters
respective dimensions of sustainability. Such guidance
is especially useful as IS are often developed under
time pressure and with limited resources to establish
such insights during project realization. Additionally,
while many engineers might have intuitive ideas about
what values are, many lack the interest in disciplines that traditionally have been involved in studying
human values, such as the social sciences, psychology, philosophy, anthropology, and others. Each discipline has produced a rich understanding of what
values exist and mean, based on each field's unique
research perspective.
In the next section we first show how the theory of
sustainability is linked to human values. Secondly, we
define human values and their related concepts such
as goals and principles. In a third step we then accumulate the human value collection that we built up
from various disciplines and leading sustainability
institutions. This aggregated cross-disciplinary value
collection aims to pragmatically support companies
and their engineering teams. It helps them understand
what values are, which ones exist, and thereby broadens their creative process when reflecting on potential
customer value propositions and by extension, customer needs.

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2019