Contextual relationships among key factors related to environmental sustainability: Evidence from an emerging economy

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, the need for achieving an environmentally sustainable supply chain has become a prominent concern among researchers as well as industry practitioners. However, there exists an insufficiency of comprehensive studies on the critical factors for environmental sustainability in the context of an emerging economy. To fill this research gap, the present study aims to determine and analyze the critical success factors (CSFs) for implementing Environmentally Sustainable Supply Chain Management (ESSCM) practices considering the readymade garment (RMG) sector of Bangladesh. Initially, fourteen CSFs were sorted-out based on a review of the existing literature. We then held an interactive discussion session with industry experts to screen these candidate CSFs vis-a-vis the RMG industry of Bangladesh. The experts agreed on ten factors that we then processed further intending to understand the contextual relationships and interdependency among them. For this purpose, we applied the Total Interpretive Structural Modeling (TISM) technique. Moreover, we implemented a Cross-impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis to classify the CSFs according to the influence and dependence level of each factor. Our findings indicate that all the identified CSFs are interrelated and “Effective government policies” is the most dominating CSF that acts independently but influences other CSFs either directly or indirectly. The findings can help motivate managers in the RMG industry to concentrate on the most relevant CSFs, thereby accomplishing ESSCM more effectively in the context of an emerging economy.