STRATEGIC GREEN ORIENTATION IN SUPPLY CHAINS: THE CASE OF APPAREL INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Environmental pollution is one of the most prevalent issues in the world today. Today’s organizations have recognized that environmental aspects are the most important components that would contribute to the achievement of the organizations’ goals for future successes. In the Sri Lankan context, from the organizations' point of view, the green supply chain practices are not at a very satisfactory level. The apparel industry in Sri Lanka is mostly involved in supply chain activities and is one of the key contributors to the Sri Lankan economy. This research has selected the said industry to have a proper understanding of the nature of green practices currently followed by the apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka and what the contributory factors which influence such green practices are. This study also focused on strategic green orientation in the supply chain and investigated the environmental practices that were adopted by the apparel manufacturers for "greening" their supply chain. The study considered seven apparel companies that are currently involved in green practices to collect the data. Fourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with senior managers of the selected companies, which included four telephone interviews, four face-to-face interviews, and six virtual interviews on the Zoom platform. Documentary evidence was also collected and examined with a combined literature review on green supply chain management and strategic green orientation. This study adopted the multiple case study method by using a qualitative approach for data analysis. The review on green supply chain practices and the data collections led to the development of the three main criteria for the selection of cases for the research: environmental sustainability, supply chain development, and behavioral change of the organization. The Nvivo 12 software was used to analyze the data with a combination of theoretically derived codes and indigenous codes as the coding strategy. The research contribution is intended to provide insight for other manufacturing industries in Sri Lanka to also implement green initiatives in their manufacturing development.