The study aims to investigate the perspectives of investors towards green IS initiatives with a focus on wealth and risk effects. The research problem aims to answer Nishant, Teo and Goh’s (2017) call for studies examining risk effects of green information systems (IS) initiatives, from a shareholder perspective. In this regard, literature suggests that investors base their appraisal of green IS initiatives on risks they are exposed to as well as what they stand to gain from these initiatives (Nishant, Teo & Goh, 2017). However, research on the risk effects and benefits influencing the investor perspective is less established. Thus, our research will contribute with new insights into how risk effects and benefits relate to investment, which will help investors assess the risks and rewards of green IS investments more effectively. Our research question thus becomes: “How do investors perceive the benefits and risk effects of green IS announcements made by organizations?”

Our investigation into the risk effects and benefits of green IS can inform investor decision making to make balanced investments in terms of risks and rewards. Green IS investments make up a new topic with a paucity of literature addressing how to evaluate risks and business value. At the same time, environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly important topic for organizations due to regulatory and industry pressures towards sustainable investing. Green IS can contribute with win-win solutions that both drive business value and environmental sustainability. This points towards the fact that green IS investments can be a financially viable way of responding to mounting environmental pressures. In sum, our study aims to uncover the risks and rewards of investing in green IS, which can inform effective decision making that balances risk and reward.

After an exciting experience with a sustainability course during our master's program, we became very interested in the possibility of using technology to drive environmental sustainability and business value at the same time. This is why we find green information systems (IS) to be an important topic that we would like to explore how we can drive development in green IS and create transparency around risk effects and business value for stakeholders and shareholders.

We have collaborated for the entire master's program and achieved great outcomes that have fostered skills and knowledge within information systems (IS), sustainability, and strategic management of IS. During our collaboration, we have managed to solve complex cases that are related to our courses, for example analyzing how ICT, IS, and sustainability interact and affect business value, where we worked very efficiently together to deliver high-quality work as we both are passionate about the field. This passion and our work ethic led us to work together to uncover interesting aspects of green IS in our thesis.