An exploratory survey of green supply chain management in Chinese manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the pressures and drivers that have been experienced by Chinese manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in terms of green supply chain management (GSCM). Design/methodology/approach – The research framework and hypotheses are examined by a questionnaire survey through e-mails conducted in China in 2011. The empirical analysis is based on the data from 202 SME manufacturers in China. Validity and reliability of the items employed in the research is assessed through Cronbach’s α test. Hypotheses for the identification of GSCM pressures and drivers to SMEs as well as the differences that exist among different industrial sectors are tested by adopting descriptive statistics analysis and analysis of variance test. Findings – This study finds that Chinese manufacturing SMEs have been under pressures from a variety of sources, including regulations, customers, suppliers and public awareness in terms of GSCM. Besides, internal drivers are also an important encouragement for SMEs to consider GSCM. Moreover, Chinese manufacturing SMEs from different industrial sectors show some differences in experiencing pressures or being motivated by drivers. Research limitations/implications – The main limitations to this paper are the relatively small sample of SMEs and the potentially overlooked variables. Practical implications – Chinese manufacturing SMEs and their larger customers, as well as governments, are likely to obtain some implications from this study if they are willing to consider any GSCM initiatives throughout the supply chain. Originality/value – The paper clearly explores the GSCM pressures and drivers faced by the Chinese manufacturing SMEs where the results may differ from the findings through the studies on large enterprises or SMEs in other national context.

Environmental Sustainability and Energy-Efficient Supply Chain Management: A Review of Research Trends and Proposed Guidelines

“…Hitchcock [157] carried out a theoretical study highlighting difficulties that arise in logistics services industry (e.g., UK and China) concerning environmental sustainability adoption. Huang et al [158] carry out a survey to investigate pressures impacting on LSP selection of small and medium-sized companies in China. Seuring [159] provides empirical methods highlighting intuitions resulting from some projects contributing to obtain a better understanding of green supply chain management.…”

Green supply chain management – food for thought?

“…In addition, this can help improve customer satisfaction, because of having close contact with customers and local organisations, SMEs have greater opportunities in understanding, encouraging and collaborating with customers for environmental practices. The GSCM practices proposed by were implemented in Chinese SMEs by (Huang et al, 2012;Huang et al, 2015). These practices have won some recognition and were adopted by some later studies including Lee et al(2012), and Laosirihongthong et al (2013).…”

“…Tseng et al (2015) claimed that GSCM practices and firm performance have been comprehensibly studied but firms are unlikely to perform well without depending on the resources of partners in their supply chains. For SMEs due to the scarcity of resources including technological know-hows, knowledge and expertise, human and financial resources (Lee et al, 2012;Huang et al, 2015), dependence on the partners in their supply chains become critical. In order to minimise risks and complexities in their supply chains, inter-firm dependence to improve firm performance become inevitable.…”

“…There is also a growing research in the role of supply chain (SC) collaboration on sustainability (Vachon and Klassen, 2008;Ramanathan et al, 2014;Grekova et al, 2015;Gunasekaran et al, 2015). However, there have been limited studies on SCM practices of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) (Quayle, 2003;Saad et al, 2006;Lenny Koh et al, 2007;Vaaland and Heide, 2007;Thakkar et al, 2009) and only a few studies on GSCM practices of SMEs (Aragon-Correa et al, 2008;Lee, 2008;Huang et al, 2012;Lee et al, 2012;Bourlakis et al, 2014;Huang et al, 2015), and no research has been found on UK food retail SMEs that has a particular focus on GSCM. This reflects a substantial gap in the literature.…”

An Examination of Organizational Determinants Influencing Green Production Adoption by SMEs in Malaysia

“…Therefore, it is important for academicians to identify the determinants that would influence the adoption of environmental innovations by SMEs in Malaysia. This research is vital since limited studies are found that focused on environmental behavior of SMEs in developing countries. Previous literatures showed that various types of determinants have been tested to see their influence on adoption of various environmental innovations [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The determinants however, can be classified into three main factors which are technological factor, organizational factor and environmental factor.…”