The road to cooperative supply‐chain environmental management: trust and uncertainty among pro‐active firms

Abstract

The pressures on firms to improve their environmental performance have caused them to look outside their boundaries towards their supply chains. In such approaches, firms work with vendors to develop the environmental profile of supplied materials (for example) by reducing materials' toxicity or the amount of packaging used. While large firms can mandate that their suppliers comply with such initiatives, more cooperative approaches are generally likely to be more fruitful. This article presents the results from an exploratory, two phase study of the conditions under which firms engage in cooperative supply-chain environmental management. First, the authors conducted interviews with 14 leading-edge firms. In the second phase, the authors conducted a theoretical-sample survey to examine a model of the antecedents of cooperative supply-chain environmental management. The results suggest that inter-firm trust, uncertainty and pro-active environmental management most directly affect the extent to which firms engage in cooperative supply-chain environmental management.

Overview of Past and Ongoing Experiences Dealing with the Environmental Management at Cluster Level

“…green design, green procurement, reverse logistics, etc.) (Srivastava, 2007;Sharfman et al, 2009). Conversely, the same literature agrees in giving particular importance to studies and contributions that on the one hand account for the reasons for adopting environmental supply chain management practices, and on the other hand account for the benefits and difficulties related to the implementation of the same practices.…”

“…consumers or institutions), to the need to ensure compliance to more stringent environmental regulatory requirements, to reasons of a strategic nature, or related to the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage (Sharfman et al 2009;Darnall et al 2008;Nawrocka, 2008). Corbett and Decroix (2001) affirm that nowadays the need to extend environmental management practices to the supply chain to improve performances is so recurrent in studies it has become a 'mantra' ("We have heard [...] various versions of the 'mantra': 'the next step forward in environmental improvement lies in supply-chain coordination', Corbett and Decroix, 2001).…”

“…In this context, the empirical contributions emphasize how -beyond the reasons more closely tied to a proactive and '"value-driven"' environmental management -the key element that pushes companies towards a logic of cooperation with suppliers is mainly due to the uncertainty of information that governs the nature and extent of environmental impacts associated with the production process upstream and downstream activities, and the complexity and difficulty of decision-making processes frequently created by this uncertainty (Vermeulen and Ras, 2006 ;Sharfman et al, 2009). …”

“…In fact, although taking into account the entire lifecycle can provide more opportunities to reduce the environmental impact associated with the products -either through actions on specific issues and joint efforts involving different stakeholders along the chain - (Sharfman et al, 2009), thus contributing to the achievement of tangible improvements in performance (van Berkel et al 1999;Charter and Belmane, 1999;Brezet and Rocha, 2001), the process of 'opening up' the environmental management systems is not immediate or 'painless' for businesses.…”

Effective Life Cycle Management in SMEs: Use of a Sector-Based Approach to Overcome Barriers

“…In order to embed this open-minded approach, it is crucial to have leadership teams in place that encourage this way of thinking and a culture of collaboration [119]. Trust between supply chain entities creates momentum and supports suppliers to share innovative ideas with other supply chain entities [146][147][148]. Trust is important when supply chain entities collaborate as it facilitates commitment and emergence of a common vision of participants [147].…”