scholarly journals The impact of green supply chain management in small to medium enterprises: Cross-sectional evidence

Author(s):  
Chengedzai Mafini ◽  
Asphat Muposhi

Background: South Africa has a high rate of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) failure, especially in the manufacturing sector. The operational challenges confronting manufacturing SMEs are acknowledged by the Global Competitiveness Index that ranked South African SMEs as one of the lowest in emerging economies.Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the association between green supply chain management (GSCM) practices, environmental collaboration and financial performance in SMEs.Method: The study is quantitative in nature and involves a convenient sample of 312 SMEs based in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Data analyses follow a two-step process involving a confirmatory factor analysis to test the psychometric properties of the measurement scale and Structural Equation Modelling to test the proposed hypotheses.Results: The study shows that three GSCM practices, namely, green procurement, green logistics and green manufacturing in SMEs exert a positive effect on environmental collaboration, with green manufacturing exerting a higher effect than the other two constructs. In turn, higher levels of environmental collaboration inspired higher levels of SME financial performance.Conclusion: The study advances that SMEs can succeed financially through the influence of enhanced environmental collaboration, which emanates, in part, from the adoption and implementation of GSCM practices.

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 2040026
Author(s):  
Sara Jassim ◽  
Muneer Al-Mubarak ◽  
Allam Hamdan

As the world grows and develops, people become more aware of business operational processes that are extremely harmful to our environment. Recently, customers’ demands, and governmental legislations have forced domestic and global organizations to implement environmentally sustainable practices in order to cure what has been damaged in the previous decades. This study focuses on the impact of green supply chain management practices on firm’s performance. These practices are green purchasing, green packaging, green manufacturing, green design and green marketing. A questionnaire was circulated among two companies of two industries: shipping and automobile. 80 managers and supervisors were targeted; 59 responses were received indicating a response rate of (74%). For testing, regression analysis and T-test were used. From the analysis, it was found that most of green practices influence firm’s performance with green manufacturing the most adopted practice that shapes the industries, followed by green marketing and green purchasing. On the other hand, little impact was found in green packaging and negative impact of green design on firm’s performance. Overall, the study indicates that the tested sample is moving towards the green concept but still it is in its first stages and needs more efforts and support from firms, suppliers and customers.


2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1110-1122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhijit Majumdar ◽  
Sanjib Sinha

PurposeSmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) of Indian clothing industry have become one of the most important cogs of global fashion supply chain. However, the implementation of green practices is still in the nascent stage. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the important barriers of green supply chain management in Indian clothing SMEs.Design/methodology/approachA total of 36 barriers related to green supply chain management (GSCM) practices were identified through exhaustive literature review. Then ten important barriers were shortlisted through questionnaire survey among supply chain practitioners using five-point Likert scale. Finally, interpretive structural modeling technique was used to decipher the contextual relationships among these barriers.FindingsComplexity of green process and system design and lack of support from regulatory authorities were found to be the barriers having the maximum driving power. Lack of consumer support and high investment and low economic benefits were also found to be important barriers in the way of green practices implementation in clothing SMEs. In contrast, lack of reward systems for suppliers, uncertainty of green outcome, lack of green materials, process and technology and lack of flexibility to switch over to green system were the dependent barriers.Originality/valueThe important barriers of GSCM practices in Indian clothing SMEs have been identified and analyzed. The finding will be helpful in making the Indian clothing SMEs environmentally sustainable by eliminating the important barriers.


Author(s):  
Chengedzai Mafini ◽  
Welby V. Loury-Okoumba

Background: The implementation of green supply chain management activities as a business strategy remains unfamiliar to many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries such as South Africa. Setting: Implementation of green supply chain management activities by South African SMEs is necessary, given both the high failure rate of such enterprises in the country and the proven ability of such activities to promote the success of businesses. Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between green supply chain management activities, operational performance and supply chain performance in manufacturing SMEs in South Africa. Methods: Data were collected from 219 manufacturing SMEs operating within Gauteng. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the psychometric properties of measurement scales. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modelling. Results: Four green supply chain management activities, namely green purchasing, reverse logistics, environmental collaboration with suppliers and green manufacturing, exerted a positive influence on operational performance. Environmental collaboration with suppliers exerted the highest influence on operational performance when compared to green purchasing, reverse logistics and green manufacturing. In turn, operational performance exerted a strong positive influence on supply chain performance. Conclusion: The results of the study suggest that manufacturing SMEs in developing countries could benefit by adopting green supply chain management activities, with improvements being realised in terms of increases in both operational and supply chain performance.


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