طرح های مدیریت زنجیره تامین سبز و عملکرد رقابتی عملیاتی Green Supply Chain Management Initiatives and operational competitive performance

Introduction One of the key factors that have been driving the integration of environmental management and sustainability in businesses in the past was factors such as compliance with regulation, legislation, and cost savings (Green et al., 1995). Currently, many firms have recognized that meeting only the regulatory requirements is not adequate to stay in the competition and have now turned efforts to pollution prevention and monitoring for effective and efficient operations (Hoffman, 1994; Yosie and Herbst, 1996; Watson et al., 2004). Most organizations are enhancing their competitiveness through improvements in their environmental performance to comply with the mounting environmental regulations, in order to address the environmental concerns of their customers and to mitigate the environmental impact of their production and service activities (Bacallan 2000). Green supply chain management (GSCM) as a form of environmental improvement is an operational initiative that many organizations are adopting to address such environmental issues (Rao and Holt. 2005). GSCM has been broadly described by Srivastava (2007) as the integrating of environmental thinking into supply chain management, including product design, material sourcing, and selection, manufacturing processes, delivery of the final product to the consumers as well as end-of-life management of the product after its useful life. Bowen et al. (2001) argue that organizations will adopt GSCM practices if they identify that it will result in specific financial and operational benefits. The overall objective in the practicing GSCM is to minimize the undesirable environmental impacts of the processes of the key players within the supply chain. Porter and van der Linnder (1995a, b) debated that waste elimination, resource saving, and productivity improving aspects of green practices can lead to competitive advantages. Rao and Holt (2005) also argue that greening different phases of the supply chain leads to an integrated green supply chain, which ultimately leads to competitiveness, better economic and operational performance. Green at al., 2012, using data from 159 manufacturing managers from the United States on their own reflection on the degree to which their organizations work with suppliers and customers to improve environmental sustainability of the supply chain, concluded that, the adoption of GSCM practices by manufacturing organizations leads to improved environmental performance and economic performance, which, in turn, positively impact operational performance.