5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December

12th14th, 2014, IIT

Guwahati, Assam, India

IDENTIFICATION OF PRESSURES, BARRIERS AND DRIVERS

FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT
M Deepak1*, A Noorul Haq2, K. Mathiyazhagan3
1*

Research Scholar,Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of

Technology, Tiruchirappalli- 620 015, Email: deepakmathi86@gmail.com
2

Professor,Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of

Technology, Tiruchirappalli- 620 015, Email: anhaq@nitt.edu

Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, ITM University,

Gurgaon, Haryana 122017, Email: k.mathiyazhagan@itmindia.edu
Abstract

Green supply chain management (GSCM), a cross-disciplinary field has grown in recent years with
increasing interest from both academia and industry. GSCM considers emphasizing environmental issues in
Traditional Supply Chain Management (TSCM), in both upstream and downstream business enterprises.
Due to the new trends in global warming, environmental sustainability has become a greater concern
among the organizations and enterprises globally. Several developed nations have uncompromising
environmental regulations which lead industries to adopt environmental friendly strategies thereby reducing
their overall carbon footprint. In recent times academicians and practitioners have generated interest in the
adoption GSCM practices for reducing carbon footprints and increasing environmental performance. But
adoption of GSCM practices in industries is challenging and needs more investigation. Generally,
industries are less willing to adopt GSCM in their TSCM without any kind of pressures. Consequently they
face more barriers during the adoption of GSCM. After notable pressures and barriers from external
sources are identified, industries started adopting GSCM practices. For this GSCM to be a sustainable one
it is essential that it is supported by various potential drivers. The objective of the paper is to identify the
important pressures, barriers and drivers for GSCM adoption in Indian automotive sector context from the
available literature. The important pressures, the hindering barriers and the efficient drivers are then
identified using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) approach.
Keywords: Green supply chain management, Indian automobile sector, Analytical Hierarchical Process

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IDENTIFICATION OF PRESSURES, BARRIERS AND DRIVERS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN SUPPLY
CHAIN MANAGEMENT

1 Introduction
Supply chain management (SCM) plays a big role
in the improvement and implementation of a firm's
competitive advantage. In recent times, remarkable
changes have been witnessed in preserving and
sustaining the environment. Consequently, worldwide
industries have shown a growing concern for the
environment over the past few decades due to pressures
from environmental regulations, customers and market
competition.Min and Zhou (2002) defined a concept of
SCM as evolved around a customer focused corporate
vision, which drives changes throughout a firms
internal and external linkages and then captures the
synergy of inter-functional, inter-organizational
integration and coordination. Most SCM innovations in
the 20th century aimed to reduce waste for economic
rather than environmental reasons and it was not until
the turn of the 21st century that the term green, with
reference to protecting the environment, gained
widespread use and recognition (Zhang et al., 2009).

1.1 Pressure for GSCM

Customers in the world, are aware about
environmental safeguards and need to protect the
environment and reduce consumption of the earths
resources, Green management is a tremendous concept
for industries to achieve a pollution and hazard free
environment.Increasing importance of GSCM is due to
weakening of environment, e.g. diminishing raw
material resources, overflowing waste sites and
increasing pollution levels. Generally, industries are less
than willing to change/modify traditional activities
without external motivations /pressures /stresses.
Adoption of GSCM requires pressure from the
government, customers and the Stockholder.

1.2 Barriers against GSCM

Globally, all industries are switching over their
TSCM systems to environmental management systems
due to pressures from the legislation and customers.
They have started to reduce pollution and improve
environmental performance.Adopting GSCM to TSCM
in an organization is tough and needs more analysis.
Some hurdles are also anticipated in the transition.
These are called as barriers and industries must be
equipped to remove them.Industries have notable
awareness about environmental issues and they face
many barriers during the adoption of GSCM. Hence
industries should identify barriers which need to be
removed in the initial stages of GSCM adoption. It is

impossible to eradicate all barriers simultaneously. So,

analysis of barriers to GSCM is essential.

1.3Drivers for GSCM

Effective implementation of GSCM in an
organization plays a critical role in gaining and
maintaining competitive advantage (Zhu and Sarkis,
2004).In order to implement GSCM in practice,
organizations have to overcome certain barriers and
identify motivating factors or drivers that would aid the
sustainable implementation of GSCM.A GSCM driver
is that which adopts and implements the green practices
and green image in industries. In other words, it is a
driver which drives the green supply chain management
(GSCM) for adoption of green images and green
practices in manufacturing industries to gain the
competitive advantage in the market.

2 Literature review
From 1990 onwards, researchers defined GSCM
concepts from their perspectives. Various researchers
have defined GSCM (Zhu et al., 2008; Mudgal et al.,
2010; Sarkis et al., 2011; Zhu et al., 2012). Among
those, Sarkis et al. (2011) stated that GSCM as
integrating environmental concerns into the interorganizational practices of SCM, including reverse
logisticsand Environmental supply chain management
consists of purchasing functions involvement in
activities that include reduction, recycling, reuse and the
substitution of materials (Narasimhan and Carter,
1998); The practice of monitoring and improving
environmental performance in the supply chain
(Godfrey,
1998).
Environmental
effects
of,
manufacturing, storing, transporting, andusing a
product, as well as disposing of the product waste, must
be considered (Xiao, 2006).
The various pressures, barriers and driver in the
perspective of GSCM adoption published in English,
peer-reviewed journals are classified and listed in the
following sections.
Table 2.1 Pressures for adoption of GSCM
Pressure
Code
Government Policies and Regulations (GPR)
Central governmental environmental(GPR1)
1
regulations
2
Emission standards(GPR2)
3
Regional environmental regulations(GPR3)
Special tax exemption for ISO 14001
4
certified firms(GPR4)
5
Municipality initiative to exerted extra

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India

6
7
8
9
10
11
12

13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

pressure for improvement of environmental

image(GPR5)
Global Competitiveness (GC)
Competitors green environmental protection
strategy(GC1)
World Trade Organization entry(GC2)
Lower market for current product(GC3)
Fierce industrial competitiveness(GC4)
New market opportunities(GC5)
Competitive Advantage on adoption of green
strategies(GC6)
Foreign direct investment (FDI) interest in
green products(GC7)
Customer (C)
Demand from customers in environmental
protection requirements(C1)
Demand for green product in market(C2)
Increasing pressure to provide quality
products(C3)
External Factors (EF)
Establishing company's green image(EF1)
Social responsibility(EF2)
Increasing scarcity of resources in
India(EF3)
Organizational resources and cultural
factors(EF4)
Pressure
from
Non-governmental
organizations (EF5)
Rising Transportation costs(EF6)
Environmental audits(EF7)
Corporate ecological response(EF8)
Financial Factors (FF)
Stakeholder pressures (FF1)
Cost for disposal of hazardous material(FF2)
Long-term profits associated with the
adoption of green strategies(FF3)
Pressure from new economic, energy saving
(FF4)
Production and Operational Factors (POF)
Company's environmental mission(POF1)
Industrial
professional
group
activities(POF2)
Potential liability for disposal of hazardous
materials (POF3)
Employee pressures(POF4)
increasing cube utilization(POF5)
Awareness about investment recovery(POF6)
Reduce
environmental
accidents
in
organization(POF7)
E-logistics and environment(POF8)
Ethical responsibility(POF9)

Table 2.2 Barriers against GSCM adoption

Code Barrier
Outsourcing (O)
Lack of government support to adopt
1
Environmental friendly policies (O1)
Complexity in measuring and monitoring
2
suppliers environmental practices(O2)
Problems in maintaining environmental
3
suppliers (O3)
Technology (T)
Lack of new technology, materials and
4
processes(T1)
Complexity of design to reuse/recycle used
5
products(T2)
6
Lack of technical expertise(T3)
7
Lack of Human resources(T4)
Lack of effective environmental measures
8
(T5)
9
Fear of failure (T6)
Knowledge (K)
Lack of professionals exposed to green
10
system(K1)
11
Lack of Environmental Knowledge(K2)
Perception
of
out-of-responsibility
12
zone(K3)
13
Disbelief about environmental benefits(K4)
Lack of awareness about reverse logistics
14
adoption(K5)
Financial (F)
15
High cost of hazardous waste disposal(F1)
16
Financial constraints(F2)
Non-availability of bank loans to encourage
17
green products/ processes(F3)
High investments and less return-on18
Investments(F4)
Involvement And Support (IS)
Lack of training courses/ consultancy/
19
institutions to train, monitor and mentor
progress specific to each industry(IS1)
Lack of customer awareness and pressure
20
about GSCM(IS2)
21
Lack of Corporate Social Responsibility(IS3)
Lack of top management involvement in
22
adopting
green
supply
chain
management(IS4)
Restrictive company policies towards
23
product/process stewardship(IS5)
Poor supplier commitment, unwilling to
24
exchange information(IS6)
Lack of Inter-departments co-operation in
25
communication(IS7)
Less involvement in environmental related
26
programs and meetings(IS8)

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IDENTIFICATION OF PRESSURES, BARRIERS AND DRIVERS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN SUPPLY
CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

Table 2.3 GSCM Drivers

Driver
Market (M)
Competitors(M1)
Sustainable Development(M2)
Financial benefit(M3)
Establishing company's green image locally
and globally(M4)
Global marketing and competitiveness(M5)
Potential for receiving publicity(M6)
Gaining competitive advantage(M7)
Supplier (S)
Supplier's awareness and advances in
providing
environmentally
friendly
packages(S1)
Companys environmental collaboration with
their suppliers(S2)
Collaboration between product designer and
suppliers (S3)
Supplier pressure and willingness(S4)
Government (G)
Government rules and legislation(G1)
Anticipation of government regulations(G2)
Transparent government rewarding system
for green practitioners(G3)
Standard quality certifications like ISO
14001(G4)
Environment(E)
Social and environmental responsibility(E1)
Scarcity of resources, higher waste
generation and waste disposal system(E2)
Reusing and recycling materials and
packaging(E3)
Integrating total quality environmental
management into planning and operation
process(E4)
Global climate pressure and ecological(E5)
Demand for environmentally friendly
products(E6)
Environmental conservation(E7)
Internal drivers(I)
Companys environmental mission(I1)
Cost of environmentally goods(I2)
Cost of environment friendly packages(I3)
Investors and shareholder pressure(I4)
Compliance with regulations(I5)
Employees motivation, health and safety(I6)
Green product design(I7)
Integrating total quality environmental
management into planning and operation
process(I8)
Reverse logistics and feedback system(I9)

32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

Sharing best green practices(I10)

Improve Firm Performance(I11)
Support from top managers(I12)
Organizations learning capacity(I13)
Improve quality(I14)
Employee involvement(I15)
Customer
Society or public pressure(C1)
Customers
awareness,
pressure
support(C2)
Reduced risk of customer criticism(C3)

and

3Methodology
Based on the above explanations, the objective of
this research is to investigate pressures, barriers and
drivers to the adoption of GSCM. This study offers to
rank the important pressures and barriers for GSCM
adoption based on the experts judgments through
analytical hierarchy process. The schema for work is as
shown in the figure 3.1 below.

Figure 3.1 Proposed methodology

4 Results and Discussion

The identified 36 pressures, 26 barriers and 40
drivers fromliterature were sent to relevant experts of
the corresponding 57 industries. They were asked to
give the pair wise comparison weight by Saaty nine
point scale values (1 to 9). The duration for the survey
was one month. At the end of this period, 27 responses
were received. The response rate is 31.03% and
acceptable for analysis (Malhotra and Grover, 1998).
The detailed AHP weights for the pressures, barriers
and drivers were obtained as in Table 4.1, Table 4.2 and
Table 4.3 respectively.

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5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th14th, 2014, IIT
Guwahati, Assam, India
F3
F4
IS1
IS2
IS3
IS4
IS5
IS6
IS7
IS8

Table 4.1 Local and global weights of Pressure

categories and specific pressuresfor the
Implementation of GSCM

GPR

0.2054

GC

0.21

0.1878

EF

0.1477

FF

0.1096

POF

0.1395

GPR1
GPR2
GPR3
GPR4
GPR5
GC1
GC2
GC3
GC4
GC5
GC6
GC7
C1
C2
C3
EF1
EF2
EF3
EF4
EF5
EF6
EF7
EF8
FF1
FF2
FF3
FF4
POF1
POF2
POF3
POF4
POF5
POF6
POF7
POF8
POF9

0.244
0.1993
0.2245
0.2079
0.1242
0.2103
0.1374
0.1547
0.1636
0.1391
0.0973
0.0977
0.3704
0.02945
0.3351
0.1598
0.1714
0.1465
0.1632
0.0911
0.1126
0.0882
0.0678
0.271
0.3511
0.1861
0.1912
0.1498
0.1353
0.1453
0.147
0.0992
0.0943
0.0744
0.0835
0.0711

0.0501
0.0409
0.0461
0.0427
0.0255
0.0441
0.0288
0.0324
0.0343
0.029
0.0203
0.0205
0.0695
0.0553
0.0629
0.0236
0.0253
0.0216
0.0241
0.0134
0.0166
0.013
0.0099
0.0297
0.0384
0.0204
0.0209
0.0208
0.0188
0.0202
0.0206
0.0138
0.0131
0.0103
0.0116
0.0098

4
8
5
6
15
7
14
11
10
13
25
23
1
3
2
18
16
19
17
30
28
32
35
12
9
24
20
21
27
26
22
29
31
34
33
36

Table 4.2 Local and global weights of Barrier

categories and specific barriersagainst
implementation of GSCM
Barrier
Category

Relative
weights
using
AHP

0.2345

0.3565

0.1482

0.1762

Barriers
O1
O2
O3
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6
K1
K2
K3
K4
K5
F1
F2

Relative
weights
using
AHP
0.2618
0.6265
0.1117
0.3663
0.1213
0.112
0.1141
0.2385
0.0496
0.3025
0.1972
0.2329
0.1072
0.1603
0.2339
0.2952

Global
weights

Rank

0.0614
0.1469
0.0262
0.1306
0.0432
0.0399
0.0407
0.085
0.0177
0.0448
0.0292
0.0345
0.0159
0.0238
0.0412
0.052

4
1
15
2
8
11
10
3
17
7
14
13
18
16
9
5

IS

0.0846

0.2589
0.212
0.1758
0.16
0.1805
0.0754
0.1114
0.0855
0.1335
0.078

0.0456
0.0374
0.0149
0.0135
0.0153
0.0064
0.0094
0.0072
0.0113
0.0066

6
12
20
21
19
26
23
24
22
25

Table 4.3 Local and global weights of Driver

categories and specific drivers of GSCM

0.1312

0.309

0.1904

0.1183

0.1345

0.1166

E1
E2
E3
E4
E5
E6
E7
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
M6
M7
G1
G2
G3
G4
C1
C2
C3
I1
I2
I3
I4
I5
I6
I7
I8
I9
I10
I11
I12
I13
I14
I15
S1
S2
S3
S4

0.1465
0.2229
0.172
0.1529
0.1338
0.0764
0.0955
0.1284
0.1239
0.1422
0.133
0.156
0.1422
0.1473
0.2538
0.2385
0.2538
0.2539
0.3797
0.2785
0.3418
0.0466
0.0713
0.0713
0.0713
0.0761
0.0417
0.0465
0.059
0.0516
0.0614
0.1006
0.0737
0.0614
0.0913
0.0761
0.2118
0.2797
0.2966
0.2119

0.0192
0.0292
0.0226
0.0201
0.0176
0.0100
0.0125
0.0397
0.0383
0.0439
0.0411
0.0482
0.0439
0.0455
0.0483
0.0454
0.0483
0.0483
0.0449
0.0329
0.0404
0.0063
0.0096
0.0096
0.0096
0.0102
0.0056
0.0063
0.0079
0.0069
0.0083
0.0135
0.0099
0.0083
0.0123
0.0102
0.0247
0.0326
0.0346
0.0247

22
17
20
21
23
29
25
12
13
8
10
4
9
5
2
6
3
1
7
15
11
38
32
33
31
27
40
39
36
37
35
24
30
34
26
28
19
16
14
18

Coming to the results obtained from the data

analysis, one comes to the following conclusions.
Implementation of GSCM in industries is a crucial
process (Zhu et al, 2010; Walker et al, 2008; Zhang et
al, 2009) and needs co-ordination from all levels of the
workforce, from employees to top management.
Prioritization of essential pressures for execution of
GSCM is difficult as it has countless characteristics.
Literature review shows that almost all researchers have

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IDENTIFICATION OF PRESSURES, BARRIERS AND DRIVERS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN SUPPLY
CHAIN MANAGEMENT

concluded that government regulations and customers

awareness should be considered as crucial pressures for
implementing GSCM but there is no research regarding
analysis of pressures other than government regulations
and customers pressure.
Under barrier category, Lack of Corporate Social
Responsibility barrier comes first. Walker et al. (2008)
and Mudgal et al. (2010) have stated that corporate
environmental awareness is most important to adopt
GSCM. Lack of training courses/consultancy and
institutions to train, monitor and mentor industry
specific progress barrier is next to IS3. The participation
of company professionals in environmental seminars;
training courses; mentorship programs is poor. The lack
of customer awareness and pressure about GSCM
barrier is next to the IS1 barrier. Lack of Interdepartmental co-operation in communication (IS7)

barrier is next to the IS2 barrier.Restrictive company

policies towards product/process stewardship weight are
of greatly less value than the IS7 barrier.
Consumers environmental consciousness is a
significant driving force for companies to engage in
environmental management (Chen et al. 2006).Amongst
the major criteria it was found that Market was the most
important driver for sustainable implementation of
GSCM with a global weight of 0.309. The most
important driver was found to be Standard Quality
Certification like ISO 4001 with Global Weight 0.04834
followed by Government rules and regulations with
Global Weight 0.4832 and Transparent government
rewarding system for green practitioners with Global
Weight of 0.4832.

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