ABSTRACT
Universities deploy a variety of Information Technology (IT) systems in their educational processes. However, beyond licensed commercial software packages, students and academic staff are interested in the usage of various software, which is substitutive and supplementary, yet unauthorized and, as such, is neither recommended nor maintained by the university Computer Centre (e.g., Dropbox, WhatsApp, Zoom, Join.me). This phenomenon is termed “shadow IT” (SIT). Assuming that sustainability means robustness and resistance to crises, i.e., resilience, in this chapter, the authors provide arguments that SITs enrich sustainability and support knowledge growth at university. In their study, the authors include a literature survey on the risks and benefits of SIT application at universities. The objective of the research is to analyze students’ attitude and acceptance of SIT. The authors aim to support the thesis that Shadow IT application supports knowledge development and sharing as well as facilitates students’ competencies enrichment. This research used structural equation modelling with partial least squares (PLS) regression to test the research model. It was revealed that students’ interest in SIT is not very high and that standard IT solutions are sufficient for them.
