Adoption of green supply chain management practices

: Case studies from Jordan

Abstract

Over the past three decades, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has gained the interest of both academics and practitioners. A plethora of research studies have been published focusing on different aspects of GSCM. One key stream has involved seeking to understand the pressures and drivers that lead companies to adopt different GSCM practices by which answering the question of ‘when or why companies adopt GSCM practices’. Other stream has investigated the link between the adoption of GSCM practices and performance. Other studies have addressed the effect of some influential factors that could hinder or facilitate the adoption of GSCM practices. While research to date has progressed our understanding of GSCM, it has left the question of how companies adopt GSCM practices unanswered.

This thesis explores the adoption of GSCM practices. It presents four case studies, based on evidence collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation from four Jordanian manufacturers. Each of the case study companies are considered as an exemplar in terms of GSCM in practice.

This thesis bears a number of important theoretical and practical contributions. In particular, the thesis enriched two key research streams: GSCM research and innovation research. Exploring the adoption of GSCM practices in depth has provided a deep and new insight into GSCM. It demonstrated that what appears as a homogenous GSCM practice across companies, its manifestation in practice is rather heterogeneous. This heterogeneity is further inherited in the adoption process where companies adopt GSCM practices as a cycle of continuous environmental improvement or as a set of phases within a specific timeframe. Despite this difference, the adoption process can be categorized into three main phases of pre-adoption, actual adoption and post-adoption. It has also identified key influential factors that facilitate the adoption of GSCM practices. Some facilitators were common across all companies while others were only significant in some companies.

Date of Award	Jul 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Supervisor	Mark Palmer (Supervisor), Lisa Messina (Supervisor) & Stephanie Graham (Supervisor)