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1 – 10 of 41Michael Karikari Appiah, Samuel Amponsah Odei, Gifty Kumi-Amoah and Samuel Ankomah Yeboah
This study aims to examine the relationship between green supply chain management (Green SCM) practices and environmental performance, and develop an integrated model to explain…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between green supply chain management (Green SCM) practices and environmental performance, and develop an integrated model to explain the mediating role of ecocentricity on the relationship between Green SCM practices and environmental performance in the context of the Ghanaian downstream petroleum industry.
Design/methodology/approach
To address the objectives of the study, a survey had been conducted among companies in the Ghanaian downstream value chain. The paper used the structural equation modeling approach and smart partial least squares (Smart-PLS) analytical tool.
Findings
The study revealed that Green SCM practices had a significant and positive relationship with supply chain ecocentricity and environmental performance. The study further revealed that supply chain ecocentricity significantly mediated the relationship between Green SCM practices and environmental performance.
Practical implications
The study has developed a new integrated model to enhance oil and gas marketing and distribution company's adaptation and implementation of Green SCM practices.
Originality/value
The study had successfully applied the natural resource-based view and the stakeholder theory in the context of Ghana's downstream petroleum industry. Specifically, these theories had been integrated to form a new model to explain the relationship between Green SCM practices, supply chain ecocentricity and environmental performance in the context of Ghana's downstream petroleum industry. The newly developed integrated model has wider predictability as compared to the individual theories.
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Paul D. Cousins, Benn Lawson, Kenneth J. Petersen and Brian Fugate
Sustainable supply chain management has become an increasingly important driver of business performance. Understanding the contingent nature of how performance is improved in this…
Abstract
Purpose
Sustainable supply chain management has become an increasingly important driver of business performance. Understanding the contingent nature of how performance is improved in this context is therefore a critical task for management. The purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating effects of two practices unique to sustainable supply chain – ecocentricity and supply chain traceability – on a firm’s environmental and operating cost performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data were collected from 248 UK manufacturing firms and analyzed using moderated hierarchical regression.
Findings
The results suggest that green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are associated with improvements in both environmental and cost-based performance. Further, higher levels of ecocentricity and supply chain traceability are associated with stronger relationships between GSCM practices and cost performance. Contrary to expectations, high levels of supply chain traceability were found to negatively moderate the relationship between GSCM practices and environmental performance.
Research limitations/implications
The research design was survey-based and cross-sectional. Future studies would benefit from longitudinal research designs that capture the effects of GSCM practices on performance over an extended period. The survey data is also perceptual; using secondary data to capture environmental performance outcomes, for example, would be another opportunity for future research.
Practical implications
The authors provide additional support to findings that GSCM practices benefit both environmental and cost performance dimensions. In this context, the authors show that investments by firms in working with a broader set of eco-system partners (ecocentricity) and building supply chain traceability and leads to improved environmental sustainability outcomes. The authors encourage managers to carefully consider how they conceptualize and monitor their supply chains.
Originality/value
This paper offers several contributions to the research in this area. First, the authors develop and validate a measurement scale for ecocentricity and supply chain traceability. Second, the authors show how these two variables – unique to sustainable supply chains – can positively influence firm and environmental performance.
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Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah, Ebenezer Afum, Innocent Senyo Kwasi Acquah, Essel Dacosta, Charles Baah and Esther Ahenkorah
The priority giving to green practices in today's competitive market has made green logistics management practices (GLMPS) a significant driver of organizational performance. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The priority giving to green practices in today's competitive market has made green logistics management practices (GLMPS) a significant driver of organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of GLMPS, logistics ecocentricity and supply chain traceability on sustainability performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses structured questionnaires to gather data from 274 managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana. The partial least square structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze the data to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results obtained from the analysis indicate that GLMPS positively influence social sustainability and environmental sustainability. However, GLMPS negatively influence business performance. The results further reveal that logistics ecocentricity and supply chain traceability augment GLMPS to achieve significant improvement in both business performance and environmental sustainability through the mediation effect approach.
Originality/value
The study proposes a conceptual framework that tests the combined effect of GLMPs, logistics ecocentricity and supply chain traceability on environmental sustainability, social sustainability and business performance from the Ghanaian perspective.
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Jessica L. Darby, Brian S. Fugate and Jeff B. Murray
Scholars have called for diversity in methods and multi-method research to enhance relevance to practice. However, many of the calls have only gone so far as to suggest the use of…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars have called for diversity in methods and multi-method research to enhance relevance to practice. However, many of the calls have only gone so far as to suggest the use of multiple methods within the positivism paradigm, which dominates the discipline and may constrain the ability to develop middle-range theory and propose workable solutions to today’s supply chain challenges. The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods.
Design/methodology/approach
This research conceptually illustrates how positivist and interpretive philosophies translate into different research approaches by reviewing an extant positivist qualitative study that uses grounded theory and then detailing how an interpretive researcher would approach the same phenomenon using the hermeneutic method.
Findings
This research expands the boundaries and impact of the field by broadening the set of questions research can address. It contributes a detailed illustration of the interpretive research process, as well as applications for the interpretive approach in future research, particularly theory elaboration, middle-range theorizing, and emerging domains such as the farm-to-fork supply chain and the consumer-based supply chain.
Research limitations/implications
The development of alternative ways of seeking knowledge enhances the potential for creativity, expansion, and progress in the field.
Practical implications
Practical implications of this research include enabling researchers to elaborate theory and develop middle-range theories through an alternative philosophical paradigm. This paradigm facilitates practical insights that are directly relevant to particular domains and move beyond general theories seeking generalizability.
Social implications
Social implications of this research are much more indirect in nature. This research encourages supply chain management (SCM) scholars to look at phenomena (including those with social implications) from a different philosophical perspective, which can reveal new insights.
Originality/value
This research contributes a rationale for expanding the methodological toolbox of the field to include interpretive research methods and also contributes a methodological operationalization of the interpretive approach. By reflecting on the nature of science and method in SCM, the study opens the door for creativity and progress to expand the boundaries and impact of the field.
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Pedro Álvarez-Suárez, Pedro Vega-Marcote and Ricardo Garcia Mira
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse a teaching strategy designed to increase the awareness of trainee teachers and educate them with regard to sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse a teaching strategy designed to increase the awareness of trainee teachers and educate them with regard to sustainable consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Ninety-four subjects (trainee teachers) were assessed on their knowledge of the environmental impacts of consumerism, their attitudes to sustainable consumption and their behavioural intentions before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the teaching intervention took place.
Findings
Statistical analysis of the results obtained revealed that subjects increased their knowledge of the social and environmental impacts of consumerism, became more aware of the need to take action in this regard, and developed behaviours oriented towards a sustainable model of consumption.
Research limitations/implications
The proper application of an educational strategy of this nature requires more time than that actually assigned to the teaching intervention itself. This obstacle was overcome by using the time envisaged by the European Space for Higher Education, but the outcome could not be monitored.
Practical implications
A reduction of individual and collective consumption in universities.
Originality/value
The study demonstrates the possibilities of an educational strategy that when applied to trainee teachers in higher education promotes sustainable consumption.
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Helen Kopnina and Frans Meijers
This article aims to explore the challenges posed by the conceptual framework and diversity of practice of education for sustainable development (ESD). The implications of…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explore the challenges posed by the conceptual framework and diversity of practice of education for sustainable development (ESD). The implications of plurality of ESD perspectives and methodological approaches as well variations in ESD practice will be addressed. Critical framework for conceptualizing of ESD which takes environmental ethics into account will be proposed through the discussion of The Ecocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes Toward the Sustainable Development (EAATSD) scale.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper opted for a general review approach, covering literature that provides an overview of the concepts and practices of ESD, as well as program evaluation studies. Additionally, qualitative evaluation of EAATSD scale with students of higher professional education was conducted, using in-depth interviews and dialogue with individual students as well as classroom discussions.
Findings
It was found that there are wide and inconclusive debates about the aims of ESD based on the critique of sustainable development discourse in general and instrumentalism embedded in ESD in particular. According to the qualitative evaluation, EAATSD scale can be used for testing anthropocentric and Ecocentric Attitudes Towards Sustainable Development in students of higher education. Based on these results, this scale was found to be revealing of the critical view of paradoxes and challenges inherent in multiple goals of sustainable development as well as useful for testing anthropocentric and ecocentric attitudes in students of higher education.
Research limitations/implications
Reliability of the scale needs further statistical testing, and as is the case in conventional EE/ESD evaluations, and consequent research is necessary to improve institutional, national, and international applicability to particular cases. Future research should draw from this critical review in order to devise alternative evaluation tools.
Practical implications
In practice, this implies that currently administered evaluations of generic ESD, while useful in concrete cultural or institutional settings, might be premature. The article concludes with the reflection upon which conceptual, methodological, cultural, and ethical challenges of ESD which should be useful for ESD researchers and practitioners in different national settings.
Originality/value
This article fulfills an identified need to address the paradoxes of sustainable development and to study how ESD can be more effective.
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Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah, Ebenezer Afum, Innocent Senyo Kwasi Acquah and Charles Baah
Understanding the factors that advance green innovation is crucial for firms to deal with the complexity of green innovation. In light of this, this study aims to explore the…
Abstract
Purpose
Understanding the factors that advance green innovation is crucial for firms to deal with the complexity of green innovation. In light of this, this study aims to explore the influence of supply chain knowledge, non-supply chain learning and corporate reputation on green innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a quantitative research approach where data is gathered from managers of 208 small and medium enterprises in Ghana using survey questionnaires. The structural equation modeling is used to analyze the survey data.
Findings
The findings reveal supply chain knowledge relates positively with non-supply chain learning, corporate reputation and green innovation. Corporate reputation also impacts green innovation positively and provides partial mediation effect between supply chain knowledge and green innovation. Meanwhile, non-supply chain learning does not relate positively with green innovation as well as fails to mediate the impact of supply chain knowledge on green innovation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to knowledge in the mediating mechanisms of corporate reputation and non-supply chain learning between supply chain knowledge and green innovation. Through this, the authors propose a theoretical model to explain how firms can leverage supply chain knowledge, corporate reputation and non-supply chain learning to improve green innovation and can serve as the basis for further theoretical and empirical research in innovation and external sources of knowledge.
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Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah, Ebenezer Afum and Charles Baah
The growing relevance of environmental sustainability calls for identification of factors that contribute to green innovation and build green corporate reputation. Drawing on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The growing relevance of environmental sustainability calls for identification of factors that contribute to green innovation and build green corporate reputation. Drawing on the resource-based view theory, this study aims to explore the influence of green logistics knowledge, green customer knowledge, green supplier knowledge, green competitor knowledge, non-supply chain learning on green innovation and green corporate reputation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the quantitative research method where questionnaire is used to gather data from managers of the sampled 208 small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The structural equation modelling is used to analyse the survey data and test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The findings reveal that non-supply chain learning, green customer knowledge and green competitor knowledge have both direct and indirect impact on green innovation and green corporate reputation. However, green supplier knowledge and green logistics knowledge directly impact green innovation but indirectly impact green corporate reputation through green innovation.
Originality/value
Despite the growing literature exploring the relationship between learning, innovation and reputation, their literature in emerging economies remains underdeveloped. This study provides empirical evidence to confirm the role of non-supply chain learning and green supply chain knowledge in building green corporate reputation and developing green innovation of SMEs in an emerging economy.
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Trang T. Hoang, John E. Bell and Thomas J. Goldsby
This paper aims to present an emergent framework that proposes the strategic importance of supply chain (SC) traceability beyond the traditional role in supporting product safety…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an emergent framework that proposes the strategic importance of supply chain (SC) traceability beyond the traditional role in supporting product safety, recalls and sustainability initiatives.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory (GT) approach with 22 in-depth interviews with managers from 10 countries/territories and 3 different echelons of the food SC is employed to arrive at the strategic traceability framework and framework's propositions.
Findings
The framework suggests that traceability can sometimes help expose and modify firms' core and non-core SC capabilities and provide an opportunity to align them better with SC strategies. This alignment may require a complementary execution of human coordination and the adoption of technological traceability components.
Practical implications
The research suggests that firms may be able to extract greater value from the firms' traceability investments. While traceability continues to serve the key purposes of preventing and mitigating the risks of recalls, this can sometimes illuminate sustained business growth opportunities.
Originality/value
The study extends traceability beyond a means to meet the requirements of product safety, recalls and sustainability. Rather, this study establishes traceability's role in exposing and aligning firms' capabilities for business gain and not merely recall risk mitigation. This reframing of the premise for traceability can invigorate both research and practice on the subject of traceability.
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Michael Karikari Appiah, Evelyn Toseafa, Aloysius Sam, Felix Danso and Alex Nsowah
Despite the enormous expectant opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), including creating a single continental market for goods and services, trade…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the enormous expectant opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), including creating a single continental market for goods and services, trade and investment, one key deterrent has remained fiercely unresolved due to failed trajectories with similar regional markets initiatives in the continent, and that is environmental uncertainty. To address this concern, this paper aims to develop a sustainability enabled-model to facilitate the adoption of AfCFTA under uncertain environment conditions to guide prospective investors and facilitators.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is anchored on quantitative research approach and positivists’ paradigm. Survey strategy has been used to collect data from 520 medium-sized firms across Ghana. Data analyses have been conducted with the using smart partial least squares version 3.3.3 analytical tool and structural equation modeling modality.
Findings
The findings have showed that institutionalization, supply chain integration, supply chain resilience and innovativeness have positive effects on AfCFTA adoption under uncertainty. Moreover, AfCFTA adoption provides mechanisms through which to attain sustainable supply chain performance. Meanwhile, environmental uncertainty negatively influences AfCFTA adoption, and weakens the relationships between the adoption and sustainability performance.
Originality/value
This paper has developed an integrated investment decision model to facilitate AfCFTA adoption under environmental uncertainty. It provides new insights into the African free market to guide policymakers, practitioners, academics and promoters of AfCFTA on sustainability initiatives that influence its adoption under uncertainty. Moreover, the new model, which serves as a strategic tool for decision-making, could be used to stimulate the ratification and the trade facilitation measures to build strong confidence in current and prospective investors.
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