Green Supply Chain Management and Corporate Performance: Developing a Roadmap for Future Research Using a Mixed Method Approach

Abstract

Global warming and the depletion of natural resources have motivated calls for significant changes in the way organizations produce and deliver products and services. In many countries mandatory measures, such as carbon taxation, have been introduced to stimulate the greening of supply chains. However, research on the impact of the implementation of green supply chain management practices on corporate performance is still inconclusive. This study investigates the relationship between green supply chain management (GSCM) practices and corporate performance (CP) using a sequential mixed methods research design. First, a quantitative survey was conducted with 140 respondents to test a series of hypotheses. When a number of these hypotheses were not supported, a qualitative approach was introduced to uncover the barriers to corporate performance improvements. The qualitative study found some key reasons why green supply chain management practices failed to impact many of the dimensions of corporate performance. The majority related to issues in implementation including eco-design, green purchasing, environmental cooperation and reverse logistics. This information allowed the researchers to develop a series of managerial recommendations for firms interested in improving their performance while implementing green supply chain practices. Our research found that quantitative research alone was not sufficient to uncover the links between GCSM practices and corporate performance which highlights the need to supplement quantitiave methods with qualitative research in order to explain the underlying reasons for supporting or not supporting various GCSM practices.