Implementing environmental practices within the Greek dairy supply chain. Drivers and barriers for SMEs

Published date16 October 2017
Pages1995-2014
Date16 October 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-07-2016-0270
AuthorAbhijeet Ghadge,Merilena Kaklamanou,Sonal Choudhary,Michael Bourlakis
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information systems,Data management systems,Knowledge management,Knowledge sharing,Management science & operations,Supply chain management,Supply chain information systems,Logistics,Quality management/systems
Implementing environmental
practices within the Greek
dairy supply chain
Drivers and barriers for SMEs
Abhijeet Ghadge and Merilena Kaklamanou
Department of Business Management, School of Social Sciences,
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
Sonal Choudhary
Management School, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK, and
Michael Bourlakis
Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
Abstract
Purpose Food supply chain (FSC) inGreece is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
who face severalchallenges in adopting greenpractices. The purpose of this paperis to identify the key drivers
and barriers influencing the environmental performance of SMEswithin the Greek dairy supply chain (SC).
Design/methodology/approach Descriptive research methodology attempts to prioritize the drivers and
barriers for improving the environmental sustainability performance. Analytical hierarchy process and
sensitivity analysis are used to understand the complex nature of the influencing factors.
Findings The analysis identifies five barriers and six drivers for the implementation of green practices
within the dairy SC. While external drivers significantly influence the market structure and logistics network,
government, competitors and customers are the driving factors for improving environmental performance.
Research limitations/implications The study contributes to filling the literature gap on key factors
influencing the implementation of green practices within the FSC. The identified influential factors will
contribute toward building a framework for improving sustainability performance within the Greek dairy SC.
Practical implications The study is expected to benefit the Greek and European SMEs by driving their
environmental practices within the perishable SC network.
Originality/value The paper provides directions for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in
understanding the challenges for implementing green practices in the dairy SC. The holistic approach
followed in this paper is a building block for a conceptual framework on implementing environmental
sustainability within the FSC. Apart from contributing to the current literature by extending the research
horizon to SMEsgreen adoption capability, this study also provides better understanding of the pivotal role
of internal and external key factors in influencing sustainability performance.
Keywords SMEs, Environmental practices, Food supply chain, Drivers and barriers, Greek dairy sector,
Sustainability performance
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The environmentalimpact of different supplychain (SC) and logistics activitiesis significantly
influencinga firms competitive positionand customer satisfaction.The diminishing resources
and the increasing amount of waste are adding to the existing burden on the environment
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 117 No. 9, 2017
pp. 1995-2014
Emerald Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-07-2016-0270
Received 9 July 2016
Revised 27 February 2017
10 April 2017
6 June 2017
Accepted 6 June 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
© Abhijeet Ghadge, Merilena Kaklamanou, Sonal Choudhary and Michael Bourlakis. Published by
Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this
article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original
publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/
licences/by/4.0/legalcode
1995
Greek dairy
supply chain
(Srivastava, 2007). These external pressures, combined with the customer and government
awarenesshave made the environmental sustainability a key focus areain the recent business
agendas (Linton et al., 2007; Peterson, 2009; Rauter et al., 2017). The current SC practices are
striving to implement the sustainability practices to improve their overall performance,
enhance brand reputation and consequently achieve higher margins. The implementation of
environmentally sustainable practices has become a challenging issue especially in the food
sector. The food and drinks sector is very dynamic with constant changes in the customer
demand (Trienekens et al., 2012; Beske et al., 2014). The food supply chain (FSC) refers
to an interdependent system of organizations, processes, activities, stakeholders and
resources involved in moving the food from producers to consumers. The processes in a
typical FSC involve production, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal.
Accounting for 14.6 percent (1,048 billion turnover) of all the production in manufacturing
sector across the European Union (EU) (Eurostat, 2014), FSC connects three important
European economies, namely, agriculture, food processing industry and distribution sector
(European Commission, 2015). As the FSC is becoming agile and global, the changes in the
packaging, storage and delivery systems are making this sector energy intensive with
significant impact on the environmental sustainability.
Across all 28-EU countries, food and drinks industry is dominated by small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), accounting for an average of 51.6 percent turnover
and 64.3 percent of the employment (Eurostat, 2014). While earlier research studies have
highlighted the competitive advantages of deploying proactive environmental strategies
in the businesses (Lee and Ball, 2003; Alt et al., 2015), the adoption of these strategies by
SMEs have mainly been reactive, focusing largely on the compliance rather than
sustainability (Ching-Hsun, 2015). Since the environmental responsiveness varies among
firms in the same sector, identifying obstacles of environmental sustainability
implementation across the network is a primary step in helping industrys transition
toward a sustainable SC. The SMEs face several challenges or barriers in implementing
these sustainable practices in their SC network (Lamprinopoulou and Tregear, 2011;
Dey and Cheffi, 2013; Glover et al., 2014); and they are required to equip themselves to
mitigate these challenges in order to become resilient and adaptable. There is limited
availability of empirical research on drivers and barriers to environmental sustainability
performance, particularly in the context of FSCs (Bourlakis, Maglaras, Gallear, and
Fotopoulos, 2014; Ramirez et al., 2014). The elimination of all the barriers at once being a
difficult proposition, industries are required to identify and prioritize the key factors for
systematic improvement of the environmental performance. This research aims to
comprehend key factors influencing the implementation of environmental performance
measures in the Greek SMEs. The research specifies three objectives in order to achieve
the overall aim:
(1) to identify and classify the major factors (drivers and barriers) influencing the green
practices in FSC management through a comprehensive literature review;
(2) to assess the level of importance of each driver and barrier using collected data on
the Greek dairy SC; and
(3) to examine the stability of drivers and barriers by conducting a sensitivity analysis.
The case study is focused on the Greek dairy SC network, one of the principal industries in
the Greek food sector. It is identified as the third most important sector in the food and drink
production and accounts for over 17 percent of the total production value (Bourlakis,
Maglaras, Gallear, and Fotopoulos, 2014). Similar to most of the FSCs across 28-EU
countries, majority of the Greek food industry consists of several SMEs with a few large
manufacturers. Despite having a significant economic value, the SMEs face several
1996
IMDS
117,9

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