Green Supply Chain Management as Competitive Advantage a Perspective of Intellectual Capital

Abstract

Since environmental issues have caught attention of academia and practitioners during this decade, enterprises face a great deal of pressure from rivals, customers and suppliers as well in the competitive landscape. Nevertheless, once if green supply chain management (GSCM) practices are to be completely adopted by all enterprises, a demonstrable link between measures and improving competitiveness is inevitable. From the perspective of intellectual capital (IC), an organization theory, this paper aims to explore and identify the adoption of GSCM practice of a case company as a tool of competitive advantage. Based on literature reviews, we adopt a case study strategy, selected representative enterprise, a TFT-LCD leading corporation as well as being one of the largest panel manufacturers in Taiwan, to illustrate how IC (human capital, organizational capital and customer capital) directs the competitiveness of GSCM implementation. Results from this study, the role of IC in building competitive advantage for enterprises that technological advancement may bring different implications for valuation of IC. Additionally, the main results showed IC has positive impact on the human capital (i.e. opportunity and risk perception, business experience and level of motivation), organization capital (i.e. firm capacity to adapt quickly to change and the advanced technology upgrading), and customer capital (i.e. development of productive business networks and industrial regulations) those of are important intangible assets, and which seem to be related positively to build competitive advantage for organizations. Moreover, we draw three propositions from the results. Finally, implications for the theory and practice of GSCM as well as research limitations are discussed.