Recently, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly focusing on the implementation of green innovation, mainly due to customers’ increasing environmental consciousness. However, SMEs have not yet achieved any significant accomplishment. The lack of success in implementing green practices is due to various barriers. So, it is crucial to analyze and address these barriers prior to introducing green initiatives. This study prioritizes barriers and solutions to adopt green practices in the context of SMEs in Saudi Arabia. The study develops an integrated decision framework based on symmetry principles to identify main-barriers, sub-barriers, and strategies to overcome these barriers. Six main barriers, 24 sub-barriers, and 10 strategic solutions were identified through literature survey. Then, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) was employed to evaluate main-barriers and sub-barriers. Later, fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) methodology was used to rank strategies. Results of FAHP revealed that the political barrier category holds higher importance than other barriers. Results of FTOPSIS showed that the strategic solution ‘developing research practices to carryout green innovation in SMEs’ is more important in addressing green innovation barriers in SMEs.

Additional energy demand is needed to accomplish the mega-projects of the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). As energy consumption is one of the prime determinants of environmental degradation, the present study investigates the impact of energy inequalities on environmental degradation along with financial development. The entropy approach is applied to quantify the three energy consumption inequalities; average, between, and total energy consumption inequality respectively. The energy consumption inequality of BRI economies follows an uprising temporal trend. The estimates reveal that East Asia and South Asia have the highest and lowest energy consumption inequality among the BRI regions. Within regions, it is found that Central Asia has the lowest, and East Asia has the highest energy inequality among the BRI regions, respectively. Based on bootstrapping, the generalized least square (GLS) is applied to quantify the impact of energy consumption inequalities on environmental degradation along financial development. The energy inequalities have a statistically positive impact on environmental degradation in BRI regions, East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and North African region (MENA), and Southeast Asia respectively. In contrast, South Asian economies are sustaining environmental quality despite the energy consumption inequalities. Financial development also has a significantly major impact on environmental degradation in BRI, and its regions except for Central Asia, and MENA.

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Globally, organizations are under enormous pressure to implement green supply chain processes due to growing environmental concerns. Subsequently, organizations and firms have become more conscious of their suppliers' green innovation ability. However, the selection of the most optimum supplier concerning green innovation ability remains a challenging task that needs to be analyzed. Thus, this study develops an integrated fuzzy and grey-based methodology to analyze and prioritize suppliers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of Saudi Arabia. Initially, the study identifies 4 criteria and 20 sub-criteria through extensive literature review with respect to suppliers' green innovation ability. Later, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) computes weights of criteria and sub-criteria. Finally, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)-Grey was employed to rank the suppliers. The process of assigning weights to criteria and sub-criteria involved twelve experts from academics and industry. The results of Fuzzy AHP indicated that the "Green Innovation Initiatives" is the most significant criterion for the supplier selection. The results of TOPSIS-Grey revealed that the "Supplier-3" is the most optimum supplier having the highest potential of adopting green practices among other suppliers. The overall results provide adequate feedback for organizations and firms to maximize their ability to curb environmental impacts from their upstream activities.