Green Procurement within the Private Sector

Miemzyk et al. Conceptual Framework 4 a) Motivation to Implementation of GP 4 b) Barriers to Implementation of GP 5 c) Organizational Performance 5 4. Problem Statement 6 5. Research Questions 6 6. Research Method 6 a) Research Philosophy 6 b) Research Approach 7 c) Research Strategy 7 d) Thematic Findings 8 7. The following conceptual papers have attempted to address the Green Procurement literature. Zsidisin and Siferd (2001) This literature will be expedient in offering key components guiding environmental purchasing in the private sector. It fully incorporates directions, in theory, that can be applied for effective implementation of Green Procurement. Over the past decade, however, the practice has faced a significant evolvement, hence the need to constantly review it. Seuring and Müller (2008) The literature from these two scholars will be useful in giving a clear guidance on supply chain management (SCM).

Conceptual Framework The various literatures supporting GP have incorporated several themes that help implement GP. These themes are focused on three main objectives, namely; motivation for implementation of GP, barriers to implementation, and the performance impact of adaptation of GP. a) Motivation to Implementation of GP Motivation or drivers to implementation of GP entail the benefits that players in the private sector can gain should they choose to go green. There are a number of benefits of becoming a green procurement organization. For one thing, organizations that have gone green have gained a positive brand image from the public. Top of the list is insufficient awareness in terms of training and education. Another barrier that organizations have faced is a poor choice of products.

Most organizations have lacked methods of comparing identities of green products. Crucial to note also is that there has been a perception that the costs of initial investments of green products and services are exorbitant. c) Organizational Performance Analysing the performance impact of adapting GP has been useful in determining how efficient green products and services can be to an organization. What are the differences in GP adoption and implementations among private and public sectors in terms of motivation and drivers for GP? RQ2. What are the differences in GP adoption and implementations among private and public sectors in terms of barriers to the implementation of GP? RQ3. What are the differences in GP adoption and implementations among private and public sectors in terms of performance impacts? 6.

Research Method a) Research Philosophy The philosophy encompassing this research is the Realism Philosophy. The sole intent of this research circulates around outlining facts about Green Procurement, thereby offering a choice to firms operating under the private sector. Examples are Scopus, Emerald, Springer and Ebsco. The following is a graphical representation of the distribution of publications annually from 1996 to 2013. Graph 1 Six articles were selected, and can be categorized into various themes ranging from supply chain management (Walker, Di Disto, & McBain, 2008), sustainability (Nissinen et al. and general management (Zhu et al. d) Thematic Findings Over the past decade, GP has been conjoined to the product and process aspects of supply management. Conversely, external drivers entail the factors without an organisation such as customers, competition and the society.

Walker et al. suggested five main GP drivers. They entail the following. i) Organizational Organizational factors entail internal drivers including personal commitment of managers (Walker et al. iii) Customers Customers are described as key drivers of an organization’s environmental procuring (Carter 1998). The customer’s demands pertaining to the environment influences environmental purchasing. According to Walker et al. customers have a stronger influence on considerably small firms. iv) Society Due to increased environmental deterioration, the society’s environmental conservation awareness has increased. External barriers are disincentives attributed to legislations, supplier’s commitment and inherent industrial factors. Internal barriers, on the other hand, entail cost-related factors and acceptance. As found out by Zhu and Sarkis (2006), barriers to implementation of GP varies from one country to another and more particularly one industry to another.

Lack of acceptance implies that there exist internal conflicts as to whether GP should be implemented or not. As seen in most private companies, GP implementations have not been inculcated in the long-term objectives (Giunipero, 2012). For instance, drivers such as legislation can also act as barriers (Porter 1995) depending on whom they are imposed. c) Performance of Green Procurement Numerous authors have attempted to unveil the impact GP practices have on performance. While defining the actual performance remains to be difficult, some scholars have managed to come up with the different categorization of performance impact. Zhu et al. b) suggest that performance impact can be classified into three categories. The relationship between suppliers and buyers is impactful on the environmental performance (Zsidisin and Siferd, 2001).

It is worth noting that the ability of firms to achieve environmental performance is based on the supplies they receive from their suppliers (Rao, 2005). Other scholarly works such as Blome et al (2013) find that the liaison created by GP and supplier performance is determined by green supply development. Customer requirement and satisfaction is also key in determining the environmental performance of GP. Comparison between Private and Public Sector in GP Implementation Public corporations differ in a number of ways from firms in the private sector. Notably, case studies have diminished due to the nature of literature. As a general observation, empirical studies on GP are skewed towards manufacturing industries with less focus on the service industries. The authors focused on this research were based in the USA and UK.

This implies that that majority of the papers were focused on developed countries. However, it is important to turn the GP attention towards developing countries since they provide a wide range of manufacturing and service industries. c) Performance GP performance has been categorized into three: environmental, financial and operational performance. This, however, captures not the whole structure that needs to be examined by a company (Zsisisin and Siferd, 2001; Handfield et al. There is a need to include social aspects as Zailani et al. suggests. Another aspect that calls for attention is the performance of suppliers resulting from the adaptation of GP. As found by Tate et al. less attention has on practice. It is, therefore, quite a challenge to make a prescription to the industry.

More case studies of research need to be applied and carried out (Miemczyk et al. Another research direction is adaptation of green selection criteria in the procurement process. Rogers, D. S. A framework of sustainable supply chain management: moving toward new theory.  International journal of physical distribution & logistics management, 38(5), 360-387. Large, R.  Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 17(5), 478-496. Mosgaard, M. Riisgaard, H. Huulgaard, R. D. An exploratory study of Spanish public universities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 133, 648-656 Sarkis, J. Zhu, Q. Lai, K. H. Journal of Purchasing Supply Management, 14 (1), 69-85. Zhu, Q. Geng, Y. Sarkis, J. Motivating green public procurement in China: An individual level perspective.