Barriers for green supplier development programs in manufacturing industry

Abstract

Green supplier development (GSD) has emerged as an important green supply chain management activity since the supplier environmental performance is the overall greatest contributor to environmental issues in manufacturing industry. In order to successfully implement GSD, manufacturing firms should seek to identify barriers and remove them in the initial stages of green supplier development programs (GSDPs). These barriers do not only affect the GSDPs but also influence each other. Their relationship and their role in the implementation of GSDPs require additional investigation. In this article, GSD barriers are identified for the manufacturing industry. A hybrid methodology is developed involving Grey-DEMATEL and Grey-ISM to identify their relationships and roles in the implementation of GSDPs under uncertainty. Empirical data from the equipment manufacturing industry in China are utilized to gain insights into the GSD barriers phenomena. Findings using Grey-MICMAC analysis imply that four barriers have been identified as weak linkage variables. The results obtained from Grey-ISM analysis show that manufacturing firms first and foremost need the support of government regulations externally and the top management commitment internally to effectively implement GSDPs in the manufacturing industry in China. Implications and directions for further studies are identified based on the exploratory findings.