Software Sustainability from a User Perspective A case study of a developing country (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Abstract— Interest in sustainable development is increasing. Understanding the user’s perspective toward software sustainability helps to enhance understanding of the concept. The need for developing countries to enhance their ICT infrastructure to align with United Nation (UN) sustainable development goals increases the necessity to understand the current perception of software users, industry and sustainability experts, to improve the level of software sustainability. Software sustainability has a number of challenges with regard to adoption by software users. This study investigates software sustainability from the point of view of users in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) by addressing four scales, namely beliefs, intention, attitude and perceptions toward using sustainable software. It also addresses key barriers to sustainable software, such as lack of awareness and difficulty of recognising sustainable software.