Comprehensive Green Supply Chain Management Practices Model

There are six strategic imperatives that all organizations and supply chains must embrace. The sixth imperative is environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability is the newest of the imperatives that must be adopted by organizations and supply chains. Organizations and supply chains adopt environmental sustainability programs in an effort to do business without damaging the planet. Since this is a supply chain management class, we will focus on green supply chain management practices. Note that â€œgreenâ€ and â€œenvironmental sustainabilityâ€ are synonymous terms. As business people, we will focus on the â€œbusiness of being greenâ€ rather than the â€œpolitics of being green.â€ While saving the planet is a noble altruistic goal, weâ€™ve got to figure out ways to improve the planet while making a profit. So, the green initiatives that we are looking for are those that also reduce costs and/or enhance revenues.

First, read the Green et al. (2012) environmental sustainability article. The Green et al. (2012) article is one of the first describing the impact of green supply chain management practices on environmental and organizational performance. Donâ€™t worry if you donâ€™t understand all of the statistical analyses in the paper. Answer the following questions related to the article.

1. What is the purpose of the study?

2. What do the authors mean when they say that â€œenvironmental sustainability is a supply chain imperative instead of an organizational imperative?â€

3. Why have manufacturing organizations begun to implement green supply chain management practices?

4. Explain the role that customers play in forcing the adoption of green supply chain management practices by manufacturing organizations.

5. Describe the GSCM Practices Performance Model (Figure 1) theorized by the authors.

6. Define the study variables/constructs.

7. Describe the study sample.

Now, look at Figure 2 on page 298. You can interpret the results reported in this figure just as you do any path analysis. Consider the numbers on the arrows to be betas with significance levels.

Answer the following questions based on the results reported in Figure 2. (If you need help, the authors answer these questions in the results and conclusions sections of the paper. Basically, I want you to see if the green supply chain management practices lead to improved environmental performance (improved environmental sustainability) and if improved environmental performance leads to improved organizational performance. If green supply chain management practices lead to improved environmental performance and improved environmental performance leads to improved organizational performance, environmental sustainability is â€œgood business.â€

8. Does improved environmental performance (both ENP and ECP) lead to improved organizational performance (OPP and OP)? Explain.

9. Do the stage-2 green supply chain management practices (GP, CWC, ED, and IR) lead to improved environmental performance (both ENP and ECP)? Explain.

10. Do the stage-1 green supply chain management practices (IEM and GIS) lead to improved stage-2 green supply chain management practices (GP, CWC, ED, IR)? Explain.

11. List the order in which the stage-1 and stage-2 green supply chain management practices should be implemented.

12. Does the implementation of green supply chain management practices lead to improved organizational performance? Explain.

13. Is â€œgreenâ€ a good business strategy? In other words, does â€œgreenâ€ lead to improved profits and market share? Explain.

Comprehensive Green Supply Chain Management Practices Model The...