If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Food supply chain (FSC) in Greece is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who face several challenges in adopting green practices. The purpose of this paper is to identify the key drivers and barriers influencing the environmental performance of SMEs within the Greek dairy supply chain (SC). Design/methodology/approach -Descriptive research methodology attempts to prioritize the drivers and barriers for improving the environmental sustainability performance. Analytical hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis are used to understand the complex nature of the influencing factors. Findings -The analysis identifies five barriers and six drivers for the implementation of green practices within the dairy SC. While external drivers significantly influence the market structure and logistics network, government, competitors and customers are the driving factors for improving environmental performance.Research limitations/implications -The study contributes to filling the literature gap on key factors influencing the implementation of green practices within the FSC. The identified influential factors will contribute toward building a framework for improving sustainability performance within the Greek dairy SC. Practical implications -The study is expected to benefit the Greek and European SMEs by driving their environmental practices within the perishable SC network. Originality/value -The paper provides directions for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in understanding the challenges for implementing green practices in the dairy SC. The holistic approach followed in this paper is a building block for a conceptual framework on implementing environmental sustainability within the FSC. Apart from contributing to the current literature by extending the research horizon to SMEs' green adoption capability, this study also provides better understanding of the pivotal role of internal and external key factors in influencing sustainability performance.

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Food supply chains are receiving increased attention due to the rapid depletion of natural resources, increasing quality standards and rising food safety and security concerns regarding contamination and fraud. Implementing sustainability practices in food supply chains is believed to overcome emerging challenges at both regional and global levels. However, limited studies address sustainability implementation concerns particularly in cold food supply chains.This study aims to contribute to this evident research gap by addressing the major factors hindering sustainability implementation in these networks by considering a case of UK artisan supply chain. Survey data from the UK artisan cheese producers are utilized to identify and prioritise barriers for implementing sustainability following a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and sensitivity analysis. The analysis identified several key barriers including initial investment cost, firm size and unawareness of government regulations. The internal barriers significantly dominate implementation of sustainability practices in comparison to the external barriers.Lack of consensus regarding the concept of sustainability by different stakeholders was observed to be an issue negatively affecting the level of integration in SMEs. The findings will be highly useful for food and dairy SME's to gain competitive advantage through the successful implementation of sustainability practices.

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