5. Scanning the issues
This special issue consists of 7 high quality papers, each of which has been gone through at least two rounds of review by at least three reviewers. These 7 papers cover a wide range of green management issues, such as green SCM and performance, greener product development and innovation, sustainability orientation, integration of green marketing and green SCM, comparison between B2B and B2C green SCM, and so on. The papers cover both public sectors and private sectors; use either quantitative hypotheses testing research, qualitative inductive research, or framework development for new green practice (i.e. resource constrained product development). This special issue is truly international, as data used in papers in this issue come from multiple countries, such as UK, China, France, Singapore, and so on.
Cheng and Sheu's (this issue) work provides insights into how the positive effect of relationship orientation on inter-organizational strategy quality can be moderated by the opportunistic behaviors and dysfunctional conflict of partnership in green supply chains. This is in contrast to previous studies which are more focusing on the antecedents to inter-organizational strategy quality. In addition, their study contributes to green supply chain research by integrating the perspective of economic and relational view in the study of the relational governance in green supply chains, which is not dealt with in previous studies. Finally, this paper extends current research by highlighting the role of value-based relationships from the economic and relational view of partners.
Oruezabala and Rico (this issue) investigate the effect of sustainable orientation on agreements and procurement contracts. The business marketing literature has not previously addressed public procurement practices. This research explores the consequences of greener expectations on buyer–seller relationships from the public purchasers' point of view. A qualitative investigation reveals that new environmental regulations call for new rules within formal and relational norms. Sustainable procurement implies new environmental requirements, the supplier base reduction, a need for continuous innovation, legitimacy of the purchasing function and a total cost of ownership approach. Consequently, both the level and the nature of expectations from providers are changing. Oruezabala and Rico (this issue) assert that sustainable public procurement tends to focus on fewer key suppliers with “green” skills and that procurement process needs to turn implicit norms into explicit ones in terms of environmental impact, value creation for end users (patients) or economic sustainability of hospitals.
The key research question of Liu, Kasturiratne and Moizer's (this issue) work is on how to coherently integrate green marketing with sustainable supply chain management, so that green customer's needs can be better met from both demand and supply sides. The paper discusses a hub-and-spoke model which addresses the integration from multiple dimensions, namely the 6Ps (product, promotion, planning, process, people and project). Compared with conventional point-to-point B2B integration, the proposed 6Ps integration model enables more effective information, materials, people and funds flow between marketing and supply chain activities. The 6Ps integration model has been evaluated through empirical study with industrial managers. Key contributions of the paper include a number of managerial implications which have been elicited through the theoretical and empirical studies of the 6Ps integration model, as well as key drivers and obstacles which have been identified for multi-dimensional integration of green marketing and sustainable supply chain management. The paper has high relevance to the Special Issue as it addresses one of key themes the Special Issue encourages, i.e. the interplay between green/sustainable supply chain management and green marketing.
In line with the aim to explore the current green supply chain practices in industrial markets, Lee and Lam (this issue) adopt the case study approach to explore how company overcomes the problem related to aftermarket service and logistics. Based on the solution and measure adopted by the company, the strategic framework including green market analysis, green market development, sustainable operation management and customer acquisition has been proposed. 8 propositions for those four research constructs in the proposed framework have been derived and supported by the related literature review. This paper provides managers and logisticians with some practical guidelines and insights when they attempt to adopt a greener approach in their business. The paper has highlighted the importance of green market analysis and green market development so as to enhance the competitive advantage and financial performance.
Resource constrained product development (or jugaad) is an under-researched area as this type of innovation takes place in a large number of countries and contexts, but is rarely reported because of the small size of markets. Most resource constrained product development innovations are produced in small quantities for very special contexts. In the last five years, resource constrained product development has become an area of increased interest as large firms have started utilizing this process. Therefore, the focus of extant research in resource constrained product development remains on the process. Sharma and Iyer (this issue) suggest that there are three additional benefits of resource constrained product development. The first benefit is defensible competitive advantage as products are produced at lower prices with desired feature sets. The second advantage is that resource constrained products by using fewer resources are more sustainable. Finally, resource constrained products by using fewer and off-the-shelf components make the supply chain more green and efficient. The paper fits the theme of the special issue by examining the role that resource constrained product development plays in enhancing green marketing and supply chain efficiencies.
“Green” supply chain management (GSCM) has often been associated with highly visible organization and consumer-focused industries, and as such GSCM in the context of industrial supply chain have often been ignored. Hoejmose et al. (this issue) provide one of the most comprehensive analyses of “green” supply chain management in the U.K. and they explicitly relate and compare GSCM across firms in B2B and B2C sectors. Therefore, they seek to understand the level of GSCM in both B2B and B2C sectors, and more importantly the conditions under which GSCM will foster in B2B settings. To this end, they make use of a novel data collection approach to capture GSCM, which minimizes social desirability and common source bias. The study extends the understanding of the degree to which GSCM is context dependent. In addition, they examine the condition under which GSCM is likely to be successfully implemented. More specifically, this paper considers how trust and top management support plays a role in shaping GSCM in both B2B and B2C supply chains. Results show that GSCM is relatively limited among firms in B2B markets compared to firms in B2C markets. At the same time, Hoejmose et al. (this issue) show that developing trust with supply chain partners, while also having top management support, is a crucial driver of engagement with GSCM among firms in B2B sector but less important among firms in B2C sector. These findings provide considerable insights to managers and marketers of B2B supply chains that seek to respond to a growing interest of environmental performance of supply chain.
Chan, He, Chan and Wang's (this issue) research empirically examines the relationship among environmental orientation, GSCM activities and corporate performance, as well as how an important context factor, competitive intensity may further moderate (strengthen) this relationship. In view of firms' increasing use of GSCM practices to address environmental demands of their various salient stakeholders and the potential for employing GSCM to improve such marketing operations as product and package design, marketing communication and channel selection, this research is considered timely and important to enrich the extant marketing literature, which has traditionally paid only limited attention the strategic implications of GSCM. By surveying foreign invested enterprises operating in China, this study demonstrates that environmentally oriented firms are more likely to practice GSCM activities. These activities include the firm's strategic use of recycling, redeployment and reselling to enhance value of its materials and products, and cooperating with suppliers and customers to respectively ‘green’ its inbound and outbound logistical activities. By further demonstrating that these GSCM activities positively affect corporate performance, this study, among others, reminds industrial marketers of the importance to strengthen cooperation with their customers so as to achieve higher market share and market growth in today's highly competitive marketplace.
The guest editors hope you enjoy reading the special issues. We would also like to express our gratitude to Professor Peter La Placa, Editor of the Industrial Marketing Management, for deciding to publish this special issue. We are also grateful to the assistance of the publishing team provided to us. This special issue would not have been published without their support. In addition, the guest editors are also grateful to all reviewers for their valuable time and effort dedicated throughout the review process. Their timely feedback definitely have resulted in on time completion of the reviewing process, and have further improved the quality of the papers published in this special issue. Finally, we would like to thank