Sustainable Enterprise and Environmental Management Information Systems (SEEMIS)
Through production processes, companies exert serious stresses to ecosystems and to the world’s natural resources. Transnational corporations often seek to exploit advantages in developing countries, sometimes by pressurising weak national governments or by means of corruption (Levy & Newell 2005). Examples amount where transactional companies exploit natural resources such as fish stocks, metals or fossil fuels with disastrous effects on the regional ecosystems and for the socio-economic system.
At the same time, companies play important roles in improving people’s living conditions and in promoting the well-being of communities, also in developing regions. Local businesses on small and decentralised scales have shown their strength in bringing prosperity to individuals and communities. Small and medium-sized companies are thus a prime focus for development efforts.
Business processes at all levels, however, need to be organised in such a way that other development goals, especially the effectiveness of ecosystems, are not put under jeopardy (Möller 2000, Sroufe & Sarkis 2007). The field of Sustainable Enterprise and Environmental Management Information Systems (SEEMIS) develops information technology solutions on monitoring and designing value chains in and between companies in economically and ecologically efficient ways (Isenmann & Marx Gómez 2008). For this purpose, computer-based data processing systems geared towards environmental problems and comprising all functional units of an enterprise need to be developed further. Activities within the SEEMIS focus theme focus on practical solutions for effective decision-support systems as well as their managerial framework conditions in the context of developing countries.