I find it incredibly exciting that this year’s KWBA Annual Symposium will be conducted online. My excitement stems from seeing SAS UOPX leveraging digital technologies and infrastructure (i.e., digitization) and be more productive and more effective (digitalization). My earlier blogs and the fulcrum of my research interests for the past twenty years are about the digital economy – specifically how digitalization brings about increased productivity and economic sustainability. In this blog, I want to extend the impact of digitalization on environmental sustainability. I am proud that KWBA is addressing this dimension of corporate sustainability within corporate social responsibility (CSR). KWBA’s contribution is thus quite obvious - this year’s KWBA Annual Symposium conducted virtually will decrease our carbon footprint (measurable)! Another upside of this is unlike previous years’ symposium with limited participants and audience, this year’s virtual conference can be more inclusive with more participants and with theoretically unlimited number of audience! That’s exciting!! 

In the digital economy, we must all learn how to leverage digital technologies and harness the power of digitalization to learn to do things better and smarter. Research found that online interactions in fact strengthen pre-existing relationships that were formed offline. To support environmental sustainability, come join us on our virtual symposium and at the same time reduce carbon footprint!