Stakeholder Environmental Concerns and Adoption of Green SCM Practices: Role of Stakeholder Characteristics

Abstract

Literature has widely recognized the influence of stakeholder pressures on the development and deployment of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. However, how firms perceive and prioritize environmental demands of different groups of stakeholders is not clear yet. This paper posits that not all stakeholder environmental concerns are equally important to firms; rather stakeholders' characteristics will be a main factor to determine the extent of attention allocated by firm to satisfy the environmental demands of a specific segment of stakeholders compared to others. It also argues that not all stakeholder environmental concerns are considered as antecedents to adoption of GSCM, rather characteristics of specific groups of stakeholders and their level of market-power play a key role in determining antecedent–consequent relations of stakeholder’s environmental concerns to the implementation of GSCM. This theoretical belief was confirmed in this study using structural equation modelling of data collected through a survey of 138 Omani manufacturing firms. Results of this study revealed that effect of market stakeholders pressure on firms’ willingness to adopt both internal and external types of GSCM is stronger than effect of non-market stakeholders pressure, and that environmental demands of market stakeholders is considered as antecedents to GSCM implementation while environmental concerns of non-market stakeholders is considered consequence in this process.