Dissertation: Green Supply Chain Management & Performance Impact

This dissertation proposal investigates the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) on organizational performance. It begins by introducing the concept of GSCM and its importance in today's business environment, highlighting the need for organizations to incorporate ecological considerations into their supply chain management practices. The literature review examines existing research on GSCM, focusing on its connection to financial outcomes, environmental practices, and consumer perspectives. The proposal outlines the research aims and objectives, which include exploring strategies for implementing GSCM and assessing potential challenges. The research methodology section details the chosen research philosophy (positivism), approach (deductive), and design (analytical/descriptive), as well as the data collection method (secondary data) and analysis techniques (quantitative with thematic analysis). Ethical considerations and research limitations are also addressed. Finally, the proposal discusses the application of the findings and presents a research plan.

Topic:
Impact of green supply chain
management on organizational
performance
Submitted by
Lok Sang, LAW (@00504186)
Submission Date
09-Feb-2018
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Disserta
tion
Proposa
l

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................3
Research aims and objectives......................................................................................................................5
Research question........................................................................................................................................6
Research Methodology................................................................................................................................6
Types of Investigation: Philosophy, Approach, and Design....................................................................6
Data Collection Method..........................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis..........................................................................................................................................7
Ethical Consideration..............................................................................................................................7
Research Limitation.................................................................................................................................7
Application of the findings...........................................................................................................................7
Research plan..............................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
The incorporation of the ecological thought into the supply chain management is known
as the green supply chain management (Christopher, 2016). Supply chain management or in
short, SCM is the management of the flow of a network of all kinds of business processes. SCM
involves in the activities of procuring the raw materials, manufacturing it and distributing the
finished products to the markets (Green et al., 2012). GSCM addresses the minimization of waste
material that includes hazardous chemical, solid and energy waste, and emissions, which produce
in the supply chain process by incorporating environmental sustainability (Green, 2012).
Moreover, the firms, which are dependable on the natural assets, have to manage the resources in
a better way for maintaining the long-term sustainability of the market.
From the 1990s onward, the competition among the firms is intensified, and increased
awareness of sustainability and green activities in the supply chain situate the firms to behave
ethically and in the socially responsible way (Christopher, 2016). The ethical behavior of the
firms by improving GSCM helps them to increase their competitive advantages in the market as
consumers have become more conscious of the ecological issues. The consumers are now more
focused on how green the overall manufacturing processes and the supply chains are (Beske,
2012).
This is the high time for the organizations to transform the consumer’s interest in the
environment into their profit by incorporating green supply chain policy and sustainability. The
majority of organizations are facing problems to incorporate these factors into organizational
practice. The research will identify these issues and the effect of GSCM on institutional
performance and the measures that are taken by the organizations to contribute to the
environment and society
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Literature Review
Nowadays, businesses are becoming highly globalized and have become more
competitive. The organizations tried to broaden up their supply chain network across the globe.
The organizations are using natural resources, which are simultaneously necessary for the other
members of the society. The demand for the natural resources has increased due to maintaining
the supply chains of the organizations. For the sustainable development, the organizations
primarily related to the supply chains mode of business, need to balance out with the earth’s
supply of natural resources. It is to fulfill this purpose sustainable practices of green supply chain
management are necessary. According to Ahi and Searcy (2013), the primary cause of the
environmental problems is related to business operations such as logistic, manufacturing, and
sourcing. The organizations, which are related to the supply chains, have already integrated the
ethical consideration of green practices. However, these organizations have extended their
environmental practices by including effective green practices throughout the supply chains.
Stadtler (2015) has researched about the various types of practices on green supply chain
management of different organizations. He has compared those different sustainability practices
of the organizations and provides recommendations on how those practices could be improved.
Some of the environmental practices by the organizations involved in supply chains are joint
waste minimization with the suppliers, training and educational programs of the sustainability to
the suppliers, joint process design of recycling, transportation with the suppliers and designing of
methods that could reduce the consumption of energy. The supply chain firms in China have
incorporated the environmental practices into the purchase, logistic, reverse logistics, regulatory
and legislative practices. They have taken practices related to the eco-designing. Some of the
firms involved in the supply chains are trying to reduce the harmful effect of the environment
through emission by choosing suppliers from the same geographical areas and using smart
transport modes shared trucks and heavy-duty trucks with other companies and product lines.
The two significant measures of the environmental pollution in the supply chains are the rate of
fuel consumption and carbon emissions, as the transport sector in the supply chains are holding
the significant impact of the environmental effect.
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The connection between the green supply chain management and financial outcomes has
become the most popular topic. For the contemporary research as it includes corporate strategies
and policies and the economic sustainability Zhu, Sarkis and Lai (2012), have studied the effect
of the green practices such as green supply chain management and its implication on the
performance of the organizations. They have seen that the lean companies that have taken the
green practices have achieved better results. Green supply chain practices focus on reducing the
environmental risks and its impacts and helps in environmental efficiency. The green practices
include the elimination of the resource waste and the pollution. Through this process of green
supply chain management, the firms could be beneficial as this practice saves the cost by the
efficient use of the resources and reduction of the additional materials. The firms could be
beneficial by the recycling process incorporated into the green supply chain management. One of
the standard practices in the recycling process of the green supply chain management is
remanufacturing, which helps to reduce the cost of the production by 40%-60%.
Sarkis (2012), has found in his research that the current adaption of the green supply
chain management is still limited to the firms. Some firms have shown more proactive attitude
and taken benefits from the sustainability practices by adopting the policies of green supply
chain management. The firms need to employ the green system in the supply chain management,
and for this, they have to take some policies, and the firms lack this.
Brandenburg et al. (2014), have shown that consumers’ perspective of the green supply
chain management. The consumers are aware of the ecological issues and want to buy substances
that are produced by sustainable practices. The firms could be benefitted if they incorporate the
consumers’ perspective of sustainable practices Brandenburg et al. stated that. The conscious
consumer would like to buy products that are produced by green practices.
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Research aims and objectives
The aims and objectives of the research study are as follows.
• To look out for the importance of the green supply chain management to improve
organizational performance.
• To explore the strategies that could be taken by organizations to apply green supply chain
management.
• To assess the potential challenges that would be faced by organizations to implement the
strategies of green supply chain management.
Research question
• What would be the possible recommendations to mitigate the challenges?
Research Methodology
Types of Investigation: Philosophy, Approach, and Design
The research philosophy is an accumulation of beliefs. Among the three research
philosophies such as positivism, realism, and interpretivism, the researcher will choose
positivism research philosophy as it will help the researcher to examine the topic more critically
and logically.
Between two kinds of research approaches such as deductive and inductive, the
researcher will choose the deductive approach as the researcher will be able to take help from the
existing theories and models related with the research topic in the deductive approach.
Among analytical or descriptive, explanatory and exploratory research designs, the
researcher would like to take analytical or descriptive research design as this mode of research
design will provide more detailed and critical approach to the research topic.
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Data Collection Method
Between the two data collection methods such as primary and secondary the researcher
will take secondary data collection method for this research. The already available information in
printed or other forms is used as the secondary data that also includes previous researchers and
surveys related to the topic of the research (Panneerselvam, 2014).
Data Analysis
Between the two data analysis methods such as quantitative and qualitative, the
quantitative data analysis method will be chosen, as it is descriptive. In the qualitative data
analysis process, the thematic analysis will be done, as it will focus on the similar patterns across
data, which would be necessary for the description of phenomena associated with the research
questions.
Ethical Consideration
A strict ethical consideration would be followed while conducting the research and the
researcher will not take any actions that will harm the legislative proceeding to conduct the
research. The researcher will not take any information from any unreliable sources. The research
would be conducted for academic purposes only and would not incorporate any promotional
activities of any organization.
Research Limitation
The researcher will have to face certain limitations though the researcher has taken
various approaches. A considerable amount of data has to be collected and analyzed at a
particular time, and the researcher will face limitations related to that as this much data handling
in particular time could be challenging for the researcher. Another limitation would be related to
the budget constraint. Data collection could be expensive depending upon the accessibility of
books and journals related to the topic of the research (Panneerselvam, 2014).
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Application of the findings
The research study aims to look out for the importance of green supply chain
management on the institutional performance, strategies to be taken for implementing the
policies and potential challenges that could be faced by the organizations during implementation
of the strategies. Thus, it can be said, through this research study, the researcher wants to explore
different aspects of the green supply chain management. There will be some positive as well as
negative impact of this policy implementation. Those will be highlighted by this research paper.
The results of the study will be applied for formulating new strategies to incorporate green
supply chain management technologies and policies in the organization. The results would also
help the organizations to be prepared for the challenges that would arise while implementing the
new supply chain strategies and they can also make plans beforehand to overcome the potential
challenges. The research study will be beneficial for all the organizations by providing ways of
improving the organizational performance through the application of green supply chain
management.
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Research plan
Activities Week 2 Week 4 Week 6 Week 8 Week 10 Week 12
Selection of topic
Reviewing the
Literature
Researching
about research
methods
Collection of
secondary data
Analyzing the
data
Conclusion and
recommendations
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References
Ahi, P. and Searcy, C., 2013. A comparative literature analysis of definitions for green and
sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 52, pp.329-341.
Beske, P., 2012. Dynamic capabilities and sustainable supply chain management. International
Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 42(4), pp.372-387.
Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for
sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of
Operational Research, 233(2), pp.299-312.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Green Jr, K.W., Zelbst, P.J., Meacham, J. and Bhadauria, V.S., 2012. Green supply chain
management practices: impact on performance. Supply Chain Management: An International
Journal, 17(3), pp.290-305.
Panneerselvam, R., 2014. Research methodology. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
Sarkis, J., 2012. A boundaries and flows perspective of green supply chain management. Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(2), pp.202-216.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Zhu, Q., Sarkis, J. and Lai, K.H., 2012. Examining the effects of green supply chain management
practices and their mediations on performance improvements. International journal of
production research, 50(5), pp.1377-1394.
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