Measures of greenness: An empirical study in service supply chains in the UAE

Abstract

Research in the field of green supply chains has recently gained attention in the developing world. This area is equally important for both practitioners and academics. Studies in the environmental sustainability field have predominantly addressed the carbon footprint concerning stakeholders in the production/manufacturing industries. However, they lack a comprehensive and tangible description of greenness. So, this research contributes to the literature on sustainable supply chains by identifying the factors involved in greening a supply network (both upstream and downstream). This paper focuses on exploring the indicators of greenness to develop a framework of related indicators in modern businesses. A comprehensive scale is developed and empirically validated to measure the extent of greenness in service industries in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based on interviews and survey results in the UAE service industry, the results indicate that greenness in a service supply chain has six underlying dimensions: “managing operations,” “reducing resource requirements,” “building eco-friendly infrastructures,” “green computing,” “avoiding risks and uncertainties,” and “monitoring utilities.” Identifying the indicators of greenness can help bridge the existing gaps in the literature and help to make green service supply chains in the UAE a reality. The research provides several implications for researchers and practitioners, as well as highlights areas for potential future research. This paper is the first to combine stakeholder theory and the natural resource-based view in the literature on greenness.