Green Retail Research Articles

Capabilities to create new value for business sustainability: a retailer case study from Malaysia

PurposeThe lack of a direct link between business value and sustainability is a critical roadblock to truly embedding sustainability in business strategies. Before launching the sustainability journey, every organisation should answer the question: “What value would this strategy offer our organisation?” Conversely, when organisations are opportunistic toward quick profits, the negative consequences of one domain spill over to another. The desire to produce more may result in overproduction, overconsumption or environmental pollution.Design/methodology/approachTo give a complete analysis of sustainable capabilities, this study combines current theoretical understanding from past literature, followed by exploratory interviews and a thorough case study. The case study ventured into uncharted territories, unveiling an exciting new sphere of value catalysed by the mechanisms of sustainable co-creation. Additionally, it exposed thought-provoking motives driving supply chain actors’ unwavering commitment to ethical decision-making, even amidst towering challenges.FindingsOur empirical lens reveals the hidden mechanics of resource sharing and the genesis of newfound value, illuminating previously obscure corners of the sustainability field. Moreover, it sheds light on retailers striving to cultivate green retail supply chains. It delivers an actionable framework that bolsters business sustainability and fuels competitive edge, which is vital in the rapidly evolving landscapes of emerging economies.Originality/valueThis study offers insights into the sustainable value-creation mechanism in ALPHA, a Malaysian retailer, uncovering how supply chain actors’ business activities generate economic, social and environmental performance.

Green Retail Development for Plastic Waste Prevention – Regime Trajectories and Levers for Change in Thailand’s Socio-technical System of Single-use Plastics

Thailand faces significant plastic waste management challenges. Around 2018-2019, a growing number of green retail shops started emerging in Thailand, offering products and services that eliminate or reduce the consumption of single-use plastics (SUPs). This paper intends to explore green retail as a niche in the Thai socio-technical system of SUPs. It aims to understand the socio-technical system’s current state, identify niche dynamics and momentum, illustrate key regime trajectories, and highlight policy levers. The study uses secondary data from academic articles and policy documentation, along with primary data from interviews with 20 Thai green retail founders conducted between 2020 and 2022, for thematic and content analysis. Findings suggest that the green retail niche has started establishing network, institutional and technological anchoring within the regime despite the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Green retailers are committed to the development of their business models, but require support. The research suggests enhancing network formation and skills development within the niche, increasing access to financial resources, and establishing green financing options. It also suggests drawing links to more established niches and setting up incubation and acceleration programs for sustainability-minded small and medium enterprises (SMEs), thereby supporting their growth. Beyond the Thai context, this paper may be relevant for other countries and for evaluating sustainability niches in other sectors.

Green retailer: A stochastic bi-level approach to support investment decisions in sustainable energy systems

This paper presents a bi-level approach to support retailers in making investment decisions in renewable-based systems to provide clean electricity. The proposed model captures the strategic nature of the problem and combines capacity sizing decisions for installed technologies with pricing decisions regarding the electricity tariffs to offer to a reference end-user, representative of a class of residential prosumers. The interaction between retailer and end-user is modeled using the Stackelberg game framework, with the former acting as a leader and the latter as follower. The reaction of the follower to the electricity tariff affects the retailer’s profit, which is calculated as the difference between the revenue generated from selling electricity and the total investment, operation and management costs. To account for uncertainty in wholesale electricity prices, renewable resource availability and electricity request, the upper-level problem is formulated as a two-stage stochastic programming model. First-stage decisions refer to the sizing of installed technologies and electricity tariffs, whereas second-stage decisions refer to the operation and management of the designed system. The model also incorporates a safety measure to control the average profit that can be achieved in a given percentage of worst-case situations, thus providing a contingency against unforeseen changes. At the lower level, the follower reacts to the offered tariffs by defining the procurement plan in terms of energy to purchase from the retailer or potential competitors, with the final aim of minimizing the expected value of the electricity bill. A tailored approach that exploits the specific problem structure is designed to solve the proposed formulation and extensively tested on a realistic case study. The numerical results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach and validate the significance of explicitly dealing with the uncertainty and the importance of incorporating a safety measure.

Examining Loyalty and Situational Value in Green Retail and Service Establishments

This research sheds light on how loyalty and situational value can enhance consumers ’ willingness to pay a higher price (WTPHP) for green products. While loyalty is a function of the individual characteristics of a certain Consumer, which match the characteristics of an Object, “situational” value is a function of a certain Consumer, a certain Object, and a certain Situation. Across two studies, we show that (1) loyalty has an effect on WTPHP that is mediated by reason and (2) situational value has an effect on WTPHP mediated by both emotion and reason. We conclude with discussions and managerial implications.

Influence of Ethically-Minded Consumer Behavior, Digital Citizenship, and Retailers’ Green Positioning on the Effectiveness of Store Flyer Sales Promotions (Paper vs. Digital)

This study evaluates the impact of sales promotions that are featured in store flyers distributed by prominent retailers and their capacity to attract consumers to their establishments. A distinctive conceptual framework is introduced that scrutinizes the influence of ethically-minded consumer behavior, digital citizenship/literacy, and a retailer’s orientation toward environmental sustainability and explicit ecological concerns. A quasi-experimental design was used to formulate four distinct scenarios from a possible set of eight, stemming from the combinations of three variables: 2 Retailer Positioning (green vs. without explicit ecological claims) × 2 Flyer Mediums (paper vs. digital) × 2 Discount Levels (5% discount vs. 30% discount). Through an online survey, a sample of 269 responses was garnered to gauge consumer reactions to these store flyers, evaluating their attitudes and receptiveness. The findings suggest that attitudes toward paper flyers were more favorable when presented by non-green retailers compared to their green counterparts. This can be attributed to a perceived inconsistency between a green brand positioning and the use of paper flyers. Furthermore, the propensity to transition to digital flyers was notably stronger for green retailers compared to non-green retailers, but this inclination was most pronounced when higher discounts were offered.

Does green brand anthropomorphism influence repurchase intention? Understanding the impact of brand warmth, psychological ownership, and self-brand congruity

As consumers become more conscious of the deteriorating state of the environment, organizations too are beginning to demonstrate their sustainable commitments in ‘green’ branding through anthropomorphism. Extant literature has not been able to holistically cover this phenomenon, especially in terms of its importance in facilitating repurchase intention. Based on this lacuna, we explore how green anthropomorphic branding can influence consumers' brand warmth and psychological ownership, which in turn, could lead to repurchase intention. We explore the impact of ‘green self-congruity’ and its influence on this relationship. By illustrating the significance of constructs such as green brand anthropomorphism, psychological ownership, brand warmth, and self-congruity in facilitating repurchase intention. We apply the notion of self-congruity and enhance the literature on green anthropomorphic brands. This research provides guidelines to brand managers of green retail, to design strategies that focus on green anthropomorphic branding, facilitating consumers' repurchase intention.

Proposed Green Retailing Concept for Maintaining the Sustainability in the Company

Retail business is a fast growing business in Indonesia. This is indicated by the number of retail businesses that have emerged both on a local and national scale. One of the companies engaged in the retail sector is ‘Berkah’ Swalayan. ‘Berkah’ Swalayan is a local retail company in Lampung and Central Java Provinces. This research aims to identify the internal and external conditions of ‘Berkah’ Swalayan which will then be given strategic recommendations related to green retailing. The topic of green retailing was chosen because this strategy is closely related to sustainable development goals which are currently a big focus and have a good impact on many sectors. Identification and analysis in this study used a mixed method, namely quantitative and qualitative methods. The data used are primary data and secondary data. Primary data comes from in-depth interviews with Berkah Swalayan and a survey of 101 respondents to Berkah Swalayan customers. Determination of the number of respondents using the Slovin formula. Secondary data obtained from literature review. Company analysis using the SWOT tool (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats). On the other hand, in this study variable validation was also carried out using SmartPLS 4. It was found that decision making related to green retailing was influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factors consist of company values. External factors consist of the influence of social organizations, customers and government. Meanwhile, green retailing can improve cost efficiency. This is because companies can reduce their budget costs for environmentally friendly company needs, for example reducing costs in the supply of plastic and the use of energy-friendly electronic devices. In this study the results obtained in the form of identification of internal and external company conditions. that green retailing is a strategy that can improve cost efficiency. In addition, the concept of green retailing also provides opportunities for companies to develop their business. Therefore, green retailing is a strategy that is recommended to be implemented for retail businesses. Several strategic recommendations are given in the implementation of green retailing. Recommendations for some of these strategies are implementing a ‘bring your own shopping container’ system which will be regulated by a point system, using environmentally friendly electronic devices, creating special eco-friendly angles, optimizing social media, and collaborating with the government, communities and businesses that focus on environmental issues.

Carbon Tax and Inflationary Conditions under Learning Effects: A Green EOQ Inventory Model

AbstractNow a day, green retail operations drive in many fields to improve the quality of deteriorating items during the delivery of the green items to his customer. In the present paper, retailer receives greening items from the seller and stores it. After received lot of greening items, retailer starts packing of greening items to maintain the quality of greening items and safe from some germs. We are considering that the holding units exit carbon units which are harmful to the environments. Retailer includes carbon emission cost and green packing cost and also invests on greening items to control the greening degree of the product. This paper deals a green economic order quantity (EOQ) inventory model with learning effect for decaying greening items under the inflationary condition and credit financing. An expression for the total cost of the retailer has been minimized with respect to cycle length in the environments of green operations. The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of greening degree and trade‐credit financing with the learning effect and inflationary condition under carbon emissions on the retailer's total inventory cost. An expression for the total cost of the retailer has been minimized with respect to cycle length in the environments of green operations. Conclusively, sensitive analysis has been presented as a consequence of numerical examples.

Effects of in-store information quality and store credibility on consumer engagement in green retailing

Literature has reported that store-level information is crucial in determining consumer engagement with green stores. This study examines the effects of in-store (green) information quality on consumer engagement behaviours and mediating effects of store credibility. Moreover, the study reveals whether consumer passion for the environment moderates the effect of in-store (green) information quality on store credibility. Statistical analyses of useable data from 763 respondents examined the relationships. Credibility emerged as a key mechanism to enhance the effects of information quality on consumer engagement. Thus, this study extends theoretical discussions on information quality, consumer passion, and consumer engagement for green retailing.

Product pricing and green decision-making considering consumers' multiple preferences under chain-to-chain competition

PurposeIt is necessary to implement green supply chains. But green development needs to be gradual and coexist with ordinary products in the market. This paper aims to study the green and ordinary product pricing and green decision-making under chain-to-chain competition.Design/methodology/approachThis paper considers consumers' multiple preferences and takes two competitive supply chains with asymmetric channels as the research object. Through the construction of the game models involving different competitive situations, this paper studies the pricing, green decision-making and the supply chains' profits, and discusses the impact of consumer green preference, channel preference, green investment and competition on the decision-making and performance. Finally, this paper further studies the impact of the decision structure on the environmental and economic benefits of supply chains.FindingsThe results show that consumer green preference has an incentive effect on the green supply chain and also provides an opportunity for the regular supply chain to increase revenue. Specifically, consumers' preference for green online channels improves the product greenness, but its impact on the green retailer and regular supply chain depends on the green investment cost. Moreover, competition not only fosters product sustainability, but also improves supply chain performance. This paper also points out that the decentralization of the regular supply chain is conducive to the environmental attributes of the green product, while the environment-friendly structure of the green supply chain is different under different conditions. In addition, the profit of a supply chain under centralized decision is not always higher than that under decentralized decision.Originality/valueThe novelty of this paper is that it investigates the pricing of two heterogeneous alternative products and green decision-making for the green product under the competition between two supply chains with asymmetric channels, in which the green supply chain adopts dual channels and the regular supply chain adopts a single retail channel.

Coordinating a supplier–retailer JELS model considering product quality assessment and green retailing

Environmental awareness among the people is constantly increasing, which has resulted in massive pressure on companies from various stakeholders including the government and consumers to mitigate the detrimental effects on the environment. This work deals with a joint economic lot size (JELS) model to enhance the greening efforts of a product that flows along a two-level supply chain (supplier–retailer). Both selling price and greening effort level of the product influence the market demand. Here we assume that every individual lot shipped to the retailer carries some random defective items. Each lot received by the retailer goes through an error-free sub-lot sampled inspection process to remove the defective items. A fraction of faulty items are classified as usable and are sold at a salvage value and the rest items are disposed of. The retailer has to bear per item penalty cost for selling the uninspected defective items. We develop the profit function under three decision-making scenarios: centralized, decentralized, and coordinated. Coordination is made based on a trade-credit scheme under which the retailer changes his/her optimal decisions according to a centralized policy. We obtain a minimum and maximum credit period duration which encourages both the retailer and the supplier to follow the coordinated decision-making policy. The coordinated model suggests that more emphasis should be given to the greening effort level for higher profit. It is observed that, in many cases, a sub-lot inspection gives better results compared to a full lot inspection.

Reconciling conflict of interests in a green retailing channel with green sales effort

In this paper, we address conflicting objectives in a two-echelon retailer-manufacturer green retailing channel (GRC) with two types of substitutable green and non-green products. In the investigated model, the government pays (charges) the manufacturer a certain amount of subsidies (penalties) for producing green (non-green) products. The retailer can implement a green sales effort program to encourage customers to purchase green items instead of non-green products. In so doing, the retailer can transfer an uncertain amount of non-green demand to the green demand, while the total demand over both products remains constant. However, while producing green products is advantageous for the manufacturer due to governmental interventions, this is not the case for the retailer. To mitigate this conflict, we develop a game-theoretical model and a coordination mechanism that reconciles both members' interests. By applying the novel revenue-cost sharing along with a buyback (RCS&B) contract as an incentive mechanism, we mitigate conflicts and coordinate ordering and sales effort decisions throughout the channel. Our results show that the RCS&B contract may be quite effective in managing conflicting objectives toward aligning both GRC members’ interests. The proposed contract creates an economically viable, ambidextrous GRC by devising Pareto-improving solutions.

Food waste and its effect on green retailing in South Africa

Food waste and its effect on green retailing in South Africa

Optimization of competitive supply chains with retailers\u2019 horizontal cooperation and consumers\u2019 green preference

With the wider recognition of the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development, more and more manufacturers have begun to implement green manufacturing strategies. However, green development is a gradual process, and the coexistence of ordinary and green products is common. This paper examines the competition between ordinary products and green ones based on supply chains, and discusses the impact of retailers’ horizontal cooperation on pricing, greenness, market demand, profit, and other related decisions and results. Model solutions and numerical experiments have shown that consumers’ green preference (CGP) has a positive impact on the results of green products and negative effects on those of ordinary ones; however, the impact of competition intensity (CI) is more complex, and the trend tends to change if it exceeds a certain critical value. In general, cooperation encourages retailers to raise prices and make manufacturers lower wholesale prices, but the retail and wholesale prices of green products are always higher than the corresponding prices of ordinary ones. Market demand can be reduced due to cooperation, but it is conducive to strengthening green products’ greenness. However, if CI exceeds a certain threshold, the greenness will be weakened by cooperation. Both retailers can benefit from cooperation easily and they always reach a win-win situation, but manufacturers suffer badly as a result. Nevertheless, when CI is weak, cooperation will bring a greater profit improvement to the whole chain of ordinary products; in this case, if a retailer is willing to compensate for a manufacturer’s profit loss and help it benefit from cooperation, the manufacturer will encourage the retailer to cooperate horizontally with the green retailer, but the green chain will be seriously damaged. When CI is strong, the greenness of green products is not obvious enough, and cooperation can bring some chances to achieve a win-win situation for two chains; if the green retailer can obtain a larger share from cooperation under this scenario, it can also enable its manufacturer to obtain compensation and change the profit increment from negative to positive. From an overall perspective, when CI is very weak or very strong, horizontal cooperation is conducive to improving the profit of the entire supply chain competition system, but when CI is relatively flat, independent operation for each chain is more advantageous; if the competition status is stable and unchanged, independent competition will be superior to horizontal cooperation.

The combined impacts of consumer green preference and fairness concern on the decision of three-party supply chain

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>Consumer green preference (CGP) and fairness concern have posed significant impact on supply chain, respectively. This paper study the combined impacts of CGP and fairness concern on the supply chain that consists of a manufacturer, a green retailer, and a traditional retailer. Specifically, the optimal decision-makings are solved in seven cases, fairness neutrality (FN), the green retailer and the traditional retailer has vertical fairness concern (VFC) respectively, the two retailers has horizontal fairness concern (HFC) respectively, both retailers have vertical fairness concern (BVFC), both retailers have horizontal fairness concern (BHFC). Our main results via numerical simulation follow. (1) The improvement of CGP benefits the supply chain members except the traditional retailer. (2) The green retailer's VFC benefits itself and the whole supply chain, whereas bad for the manufacturer and the traditional retailer. However, the green retailer's HFC bad for itself, while benefits the manufacturer and the traditional retailer. (3) The traditional retailer's profits are affected by both CGP and fairness concern. (4) The high level of BVFC benefits the two retailers, but bad for the manufacturer. Conversely, the high level of BHFC will intensify competition between retailers and thus bad for them, while the manufacturer can benefit from it.</p>

Cooperative game analysis of coordination mechanisms under fairness concerns of a green retailer

This study discusses how a green retailer's fairness concerns affect product greenness and profit and explores how to distribute surplus profits under the fairness concerns using cooperative game theory. Research findings indicate that cooperation contributes to increasing channel profits and improving product greenness, but the fairness concerns are detrimental to them. The three proposed coordination mechanisms (SVM, NSM, and TVM) are feasible to ensure coalition stability, but their beneficiaries differ. NSM benefits a manufacturer, while SVM benefits retailers. Additionally, the green retailer's fairness concerns serve as distribution tools to narrow profit gaps between the manufacturer and the green retailer.

Impact of green retail operations on the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer under different pricing strategies

The increasing customer awareness of environmental sustainability has motivated retailers to engage in green practices. In this paper, we consider a retailer involved in green retailing operations under a dual-channel supply chain framework under which the manufacturer is selling through an e-marketplace and a retailer. We investigate the impact of green retailing operations on the profit of the supply chain members for consistent pricing strategy and inconsistent pricing strategy using a non-linear demand function. We resort to a bi-level genetic algorithm for the solutions. Through a numerical example, we have quantified the profit of the chain members and assessed the impact of the retailer’s engagement in green retail operations on the profit of the chain members. We have also carried out a sensitivity analysis of the profit of the chain members for the rapidly evolving customer preference for e-marketplace. From the numerical illustration, we found that (1) it is beneficial for the retailer to engage in green retail operations irrespective of the pricing strategy (2) retailer’s engagement in green retail operations reduces the profit of the manufacturer regardless of the pricing strategy of the retailer.

Are voluntary markets effective in replacing state-led support for the expansion of renewables? – A comparative analysis of voluntary green electricity markets in the UK, Germany, France and Italy

Abstract: With state-led support being only temporary, attention has turned to retail electricity markets to provide long-term support for renewable electricity. Past research has focused on consumer preferences for green electricity, i.e. the demand side. We investigated the supply side by analyzing what suppliers selling green retail electricity products in the UK, Germany, France and Italy actually provide. Through content analysis of the online data provided by these companies, we found that most products in Germany and France rely on Scandinavian hydropower. Since almost all of these plants have been operating for decades, these products today cannot be said to effectively drive new renewable capacities. Products in the UK and Italy rely on sources which already have state-led support and thus also do not drive the expansion of renewables. In fact, none of the four countries has established a policy framework that successfully fosters the development of a voluntary market for green electricity capable of driving the expansion of renewables. Alignment between sustainable energy policy objectives, consumer demand, and supply-side offerings in a voluntary market might be improved by empowering consumers through a simplified and possibly state-led labeling scheme that focuses on environmental impact and includes minimum standards for performance.

Retailing Trends and Developments - Challenges and Opportunities

The retail environment is changing rapidly. The competition is getting tougher. Some of the developments taking place include tighter consumer spending; new retail forms; shortening retail life cycles and retail convergence; rise of megaretailers; growth of direct, online, mobile, and social media retailing; necessity of omni-channel retailing; importance of retail technology; green retailing; and global expansion of major retailers. Retailers adopt a number of measures to be successful in the short run and in the long run. The article will sensitize retailers about the requirements to be successful in the competitive retail environment. All the strategies will help retailers to develop customer relationships and grow in the competition.

Green Retail Marketing for the Sustainable Development

The term "sustainability" has become the main word for this competitive resource scarce and human desires are endless and this wider divide has raised customers around the world's interest in environmental fortification. The growing worldwide knowledge of the ecological balance has given them more knowledge of the environment. Green products refer to selling products or services by highlighting their environmental benefits. So it is called eco-Marketing or environmental marketing and consumers recognize such brands like organic, eco- friendly, recyclable or sustainable. The green marketing services are financial services, transportation services, medical services, educational institutions and retail services. This study focuses about the retail services in green marketing.