Integrating sustainable supply chain practices with operational performance: an exploratory study of Chinese SMEs

Abstract

In past few years, sustainable supply chain management practices have been getting increased attention in Chinese industries. With growing regulatory and market pressure to adopt green practices, SMEs are increasingly looking for innovative techniques to simultaneously improve the greenness of their processes while improving their operational performance. The paper aims to explore the green practices of Chinese SMEs in the packaging sector across different activities in its supply chain and understand the impact of these green practices in improving the operational performance. Case studybased research methodology is adopted in this study and semi-structured interviews are conducted to collect data from seven SMEs. Both in-case and cross-case analyses are performed to understand the green practices being adopted with the focus on improving the operational performance. The empirical analysis indicates that although most of SMEs understand the importance of green practices, they have limited knowledge to integrate their green practices to improve the operational performance. Integration and alignment of green activities with the operational improvement measures are identified as critical factors to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

The impact of relational capital on green supply chain management and financial performance

“…Unless practices such as the ISO 14000/14001 environmental management system, investment recovery, and eco-design are implemented, it is difficult to achieve environmental objectives (Miroshnychenko et al, 2017;Luthra et al, 2015), and hence the value of internal relational capital cannot be realized. Similarly, green purchasing and supplier management practices are essential for a manufacturer to benefit from supplier interaction and cooperation (Yu et al, 2017;Kumar et al, 2019). If a manufacturer does not use environmental criteria in supplier selection, evaluation, and auditing and in purchasing decisions, the supplier management interface developed through internal relational capital cannot improve inter-organizational processes (Zhu and Sarkis, 2007;Gopal and Thakkar, 2016).…”

“…In addition, developing eco-friendly supply chains requires commitment and cooperation from supply chain partners (Zhu and Sarkis, 2007;Zhang et al, 2017;Zhu et al, 2013). Motivating suppliers and customers to collaborate and invest resources in green manufacturing has become a key challenge for manufacturers (Yu et al, 2014;Kumar et al, 2019).…”

A Multi-Echelon Network Design in a Dual-Channel Reverse Supply Chain Considering Consumer Preference

“…Apart from the uncertainty, a large number of studies pay attention to the sustainable supply chain network design due to the growing environmental impact, legislation and corporate social responsibility [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Jin et al [ 28 ] demonstrated that the sustainability requirement might reshape the optimal structure of a supply chain.…”

Turning German automotive supply chains into sponsors for sustainability

“…Numerous studies instead emphasised the relationship between SSCM implementation and supply chain performance. Although still lacking a general consensus, many have recognised a positive relationship between SSCM practices and both environmental (Tappia et al 2015;Esfahbodi, Zhang, and Watson 2016;Kumar et al 2019) and financial performance (Golicic and Smith 2013;Savino, Manzini, and Mazza 2015;Gopal and Thakkar 2016b). With this in mind, other studies examined the barriers and drivers of implementing sustainable practices within a supply chain.…”