Managers realize that they should avoid complex green supply initiatives when they do not have the capabilities to implement them. However, they have little guidance on how these capabilities can be developed. This paper provides an initial analysis of the role of supply management capabilities in green supply. We argue that the implementation of green supply is better explained by focusing on the development and deployment of an organization's specialized internal resources, rather than by the more usual focus on external environmental pressures on a firm. Further, we argue that capabilities appropriate for green supply are developed by a proactive corporate environmental stance and by a more strategic purchasing and supply management approach. We test our model using data from a two‐phase survey of 70 operating units within UK public limited companies. Our results indicate support for our conjecture that supply management capabilities are jointly developed by a proactive corporate environmental approach and a strategic purchasing and supply process. Our study results should be useful to business strategists, regulators, and researchers interested in the predictors of corporate green behavior. They should also assist future researchers in many branches of environmental management who are seeking to explore the role of the internal capabilities of firms in supporting environmental management.

As firms struggle to cope with an increasingly turbulent and uncertain environment there is widespread recognition of the importance of organisational learning. One option here is to look at the potential of shared learning between firms, where common interests and interdependence provide motivation for experience-sharing and other forms of synergy in learning. A particular version of inter-firm learning is the use of supply chains as a mechanism for upgrading and transferring 'best practice' and this paper reports on exploratory research on this theme. It draws on a literature survey and a detailed study of six supply chains at various stages of implementing supply chain learning.

The articulation of supply networks, as an extension of supply chains, seeks to accommodate and explain the commercial complexity associated with the creation and delivery of goods and services from the source of raw materials to their destination in end‐customer markets. In place of the simplistic, linear and unidirectional model sometimes presented for supply chains, the supply network concept describes lateral links, reverse loops, two‐way exchanges and so on, encompassing the upstream and downstream activity, with a focal firm as the point of reference. A review of classifications of supply networks reveals that none of the existing approaches appears adequate for managers facing the practical problems of creating and operating them on a day‐to‐day basis. This research identifies differing emphases that may be required for managing within supply networks, according to the nature of the products for which they are created. Taking an established categorisation of supply chains as its starting point, the research first develops the conceptual basis, using strategy literature, and then tests the resultant initial model in 16 case studies. Finally, a new categorisation for supply networks is presented, using the type of product as a differentiator

Origins of the concept: a supply system for lean production A significant proportion of the research which resulted in the development of the term lean production [1] was devoted to the investigation of the supply system -comprising the purchasing activities of the vehicle assemblers and the supply activities of the component (or component "system") manufacturers [3]. The first major article on the subject[4] mentioned this. The seminal work by Womack et al. [2] devoted a chapter to the subject, and several subsequent outputs from the International Motor Vehicle Programme stable have concentrated on the supply side [5][6][7].Thus, from the outset of the discussion on lean production, there has been a focus on the role of the supply system (or supply chain, network, stream, etc.the metaphors are many). In the context of the automotive industry, this was natural, since a large part of the manufactured value of the car is provided by component suppliers, and there is evidence to suggest that the same could be true for the designed value in the form of proprietary product technology [8].Attempts to understand lean production better, and to develop the concepts further and in different sectors, must therefore include an investigation of supply management [10].Inter-firm supply relationships exhibit very different natures when sectors of commerce and industry, and indeed, dfferent products within one sector, are contrasted with one another. In terms of the technology that differentiates the final product in the mind of the consumer, for example, any one of many situations may exist. The high street retailer selling washing powder is highly dependent on the manufacturer of the product for its technology, just as the computer manufacturer is reliant on the microprocessor producer. The same high street retailer, however, may invest substantial sums in developing, say, a supplier's food product to the retailer's own specifications. This was noted in the context of the retail store Marks & Spencer by Tse in 1985:In order to carry out his task, the [M&S] technologist is seldom found in the office. Apart from visiting the stores, he spends a tremendous amount of his time at the suppliers' plants. He works closely with the manufacturer's technical personnel and is readily available for consultation and advice. To Marks & Spencer, a manufacturer supplying merchandise to the company is regarded almost as part of the operation [13, p. 92].At the time, Marks & Spencer had a team of 350 technologists. Other retailers learned the lesson also: for example, in developing a new Brazilian wine for its low price market between 1991 and 1994, the supermarket company Tesco spent

This paper investigates the issues for purchasing and supply chain managers in the context of environmentallysound management.The discussion begins with an analysis of relevant consumer attitudes, legislation and concepts in environmentally-sound management (life-cycle analysis, waste management, product stewardship, etc.), linking them to supplychain management practices such as vendor assessment, total quality management, lean supply and collaborative supply strategies. In each case, parallels are drawn between established practice and new imperatives that require innovative solutions from managers.The paper then explores the results of fresh field research with five major UK companies, identifying the different ways in which the challenges introduced above are being faced, and adding some extra perspectives to the debate already covered. The discussion concludes with a projection of common issues and ideas for areas of supply chain management that might profit from better environmentally-sound approaches.

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This article proposes a conceptualisation for supply strategy – an explanation for how organisations arrange and conduct themselves within modern economic environments, in order to satisfy markets in the long and short terms. After an explanation of the emerging global environment within which organisations must compete, the previous approaches to explaining this area of business are explored and found to be insufficient for the new context. There follows a conceptualisation and an account of new, supporting research – a Delphi survey, conducted to test, extend and validate some of the features of the concept. Finally, some suggestions are made for the further development of supply strategy as a useful subject area for managers and researchers.