Beyond dyadic green supply chain management: Exploring focal organization and multi-tier green supply chain management - A literature survey

Abstract

In reviewing the traditional green supply chain focus and the published literatures, in both developed mechanisms on environment  protection and greening of processes in production emerged as the major issues for most of manufacturers, suppliers and customers,  sustainability issues in supply chain is not captured in a bigger picture and it is a prevail problem since most of the focal companies  concentrate on their immediate suppliers to gasp the issues of sustainability. There is a shift that needs to considered when dealing with  sustainability and greening of supply chain, where the focus should be on multitier perspective versus the traditional single tier  perspective in supply chain management, as it stand green multitier supplier management (GMSM) is gaining popularity. This study was  created with the support of a literature review, which helped to consolidate the specifics and provide useful information. Published works  included in this study are those which provide illustrations on the concept of multi-tier green supply chain as an extended and  best approach compared to dyadic green supply chain. This paper is guided by complexity theory; Through heterogeneity or diversity in  external aspects like consumers, suppliers, laws, and technology improvements, one can establish complexity within an organizational  framework.The findings demonstrate that focal companies needs to capture a bigger picture of the green supply chain and consider the  status of the whole supplier chain to ensure sustainability, and the drivers to make this a reality includes: Trust between a focus company  and direct suppliers, Willingness to assist suppliers with human resources, willingness of a first-tier supplier in sharing information with  the focus company on second-tier suppliers, just hinting on the few. Considering the forces in globalization and the call to greening  supply chain, companies are recommended to practice in a form that consider all the tiers in supply chain far as green supply chain is  concerned and that greening supply chain is a continuous process in supply chain and need reasonable improvements on the way. Governments in developing countries need to initiate process that captures continuous process improvement in public procurement to   ensure the deliverables observe greening of supply chain.