یک چارچوب برای غلبه بر موانع نوآوری سبز در شرکتهای کوچک و متوسط با استفاده از BWM و TOPSIS فازی A framework to overcome barriers to green innovation in SMEs using BWM and Fuzzy TOPSIS

1. Introduction Today, customers are more conscious about their environment than ever before (Mumtaz et al., 2018). Also, the government is making stricter regulations to control the environmental pollution caused by these organizations than ever before (Mathiyazhagan et al., 2014). Organizations irrespective of their size or structure are essential for growth of a country and also contribute substantially towards the degradation of the environment. Similarly, SMEs are the driving force behind the dynamic growth of any economy. But, being smaller in size their impact on environment goes unnoticed both at regional and national levels. It is often quoted that they accord to around 70% of the total industrial waste and pollution (Hillary, 1995; 2004). Consequently, due to surmounting customer awareness, calls by various stakeholders and pressure from the government, eventually has increased the responsibility of these organizations especially SMEs; towards minimizing the impact of industrial activities on the environment (Walker et al., 2008). Various conventions at international level have highlighted the need to protect environmental resources and also eliminate the challenges of climate change through reductions in environment pollution by industries. Most of the countries of the world; at the 2015 Paris convention took a collective pledge in order to reduce environmental pollution and save the mother earth. As mentioned above SMEs are one of the largest producers of industrial pollution, so the government and stakeholders focus is shifting towards this cluster of SMEs in order to help them reduce pollution and maintain ecological balance. But SMEs being resource constrained are not able to act responsively as per growing market needs. Thus, the need of innovation arises; so as to survive this cut-throat competition and sustain competitiveness (Cordeiro and Vieira, 2012). Green innovation involves the usage of new products, methods, materials etc. that reduce the use of natural resources and also limit the discharge of toxic substances in the environment (Ghisetti et al., 2017); it can act as a probable solution to address the growing problem of SMEs. SMEs are trying tirelessly to implement green practices since effective implementation will lead to gaining a competitive advantage over other and sustain in long run (Zhu and Sarkis, 2004; Mathiyazhagan et al., 2014). But, SMEs face a lot of barriers in implementing and adopting green innovation practices at their end. Thus, there is growing need for SMEs to address and overcome these barriers.