Assessing Green Practices in the Closed- Loop Supply Chain in the West Bank
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Date
2018-02-13
Authors
زهد, ميساء طلعت
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
An-Najah National University
Abstract
Despite the fact that environmental issues have become critical concerns all over the world, manufacturing companies are constantly under pressure to develop environmentally responsible and friendly practices. Consequently, environmental pollution issues must be addressed with Supply Chain Management (hereinafter referred to as ‘SCM’). Thus, the implementation of Closed Loop Supply Chain (hereinafter referred to as ‘CLSC’) practices can be a powerful way to differentiate a company from its competitors and enhance environmental performance. With increased green awareness and the requirement to meet the terms with environmental policy, CLSC is becoming increasingly important for manufacturers.
Thus, the current study aims to explore and assess the extent of implementing CLSC practices in Palestinian manufacturing companies from two industrial sectors (food and pharmaceutical industries) in the West Bank (hereinafter referred to as ‘WB’). An exploratory research inquiry using structured questionnaires with semi-structured interviews is used. This research discusses the current trends of CLSC practices in these companies based on findings of ten semi-structured interviews and questionnaires submitted to 113 companies. The result of this study indicates that the average implementation of CLSC is 58.2% which is considered as a moderate level. It has been found that the preferable practice toward the environment is the "green manufacturing" and "reverse logistics". On the other hand, the least used were “green culture of the company ” practices. Furthermore, the results of hypotheses testing show that there is a statistically significant relationship between CLSC practices and environmental performance. Furthermore, it constructs a model that represents the best practices of CLSC to improve environmental performance.
Also, this study identifies the factors that could affect CLSC implementation by supporting or hindering and the advantages of CLSC implementation from the point of view of the targeted companies. The results of the descriptive analysis show that the main driver of CLSC is "Governmental pressure", the main barrier of CLSC is "change resistance of the employees" and the main expected benefit is "Achieving competitive advantage ". Finally, the findings of this research are expected to provide useful information for future research directions.