Exploring the Challenges to Adopt Green Initiatives to Supply Chain Management for Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

Green initiatives have been widely introduced and have contributed to attaining sustainability and improving performance for supply chain management. However, only a few studies focus on green supply chain management (GSCM) practices in Vietnam. Hence, this work is the first study modeling the challenges in implementing green initiatives in the Vietnamese manufacturing supply chain. The authors aim to identify the fundamental challenges and evaluate the cross-interactions among them. The Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) method has been employed, based on experts’ perspectives, to clarify which factor is the most potent challenge. Consequently, seven major challenge clusters have been identified, and they were divided into nineteen sub-challenges. Meanwhile, the authors evaluated their interrelationships based on the hierarchical structure diagram and the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (MICMAC) analysis. It is observed that the “Financial Costs” elements group is the most difficult, followed by the lack of the Vietnamese government’s green regulation and the lack of senior managers’ support. The “Information” challenges cluster is considered as the middle bridge between the strong and weak elements. At the end of the diagram, two challenges are a lack of training courses about implementing GSCM and a lack of customer awareness and pressure about GSCM. Hence, these findings will become valuable suggestions for the top managers of Vietnamese manufacturers to make blueprint decisions.

Analyzing the barriers to green supply chain management implementation: a case study of the Vietnamese agriculture sector

“…Hence, the scarcity of environmental technical professionals ranks fifth compared to all nineteen sub-barriers (Agyemang et al, 2018;Kaur et al, 2018). It is contrary to the findings of Chen et al (2022) in the context of Vietnamese manufacturing supply chains. More importantly, expertise and capabilities play a vital role in transitional economies and help firms improve core values and advantages (Agyemang et al, 2018;Ahmed et al, 2020).…”

“…Theoretically, the existing literature emphasizes the critical role of integrating green ideas into the supply chain as a crucial aspect of achieving sustainability in the future (Bhatia and Gangwani, 2021). By considering in the Vietnamese agricultural sector, these research results contribute to the GSCM literature by offering theoretical implications, particularly in the unique characteristics of emerging economies like Vietnam (Chen et al, 2022;Huang et al, 2019;Le et al, 2022). The study addresses the gaps in the need for GSCM research, specifically in the agricultural domain.…”

“…According to Chen et al (2022), top managers hold the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding prioritizing barriers based on their organization's capabilities. These suggestions highlight the importance of carefully considering the goals and capabilities of the firms (Chen et al, 2022). Specifically, there are some consistent claims with other prior studies: CO1 (high investments and less return-on-investments) (Soda et al, 2017;Uddin et al, 2019); IN3 (market competition and uncertainty) (Balon et al, 2016;Luthra et al, 2011); CO4 (high cost of hazardous waste disposal) (Rahman et al, 2020;Uddin et al, 2019); and TE3 (complexity of green process and system design) (Majumdar and Sinha, 2018) are highlighted as the top influential barriers even in various research contexts.…”

“…Consequently, nineteen sub-barriers have been identified and ranked according to the perspectives of experts and professionals in this article. According to Chen et al (2022), top managers hold the authority and responsibility to make decisions regarding prioritizing barriers based on their organization's capabilities. These suggestions highlight the importance of carefully considering the goals and capabilities of the firms (Chen et al, 2022).…”

“…Being an emerging economy, Vietnam confronts various sustainability challenges (Do et al, 2020). Reducing harmful effects on the ecosystem is considered a top priority within Vietnam's sustainable development goals (Chen et al, 2022;Do et al, 2020). Specifically, Vuong et al (2021) have observed a significant increase in reports concerning the environmental impact of Vietnamese enterprises and proposed solutions for environmental protection (Vuong et al, 2021).…”