Bilateral (HK) - How partner firms coordinate their environmental management practices? Green supply chain integration and its performance implication

近年来，发达国家和发展中国家的许多公司都认真地开始实行绿色供应链管理，以提高效率，减少供应链对环境的影响。为了变得更加环保，许多公司现在已经意识到需要与供应链合作伙伴合作或整合，以实施环境管理。120多家公司参与了这些努力，包括英国电信集团、Vospre Thornycroft Group Plc、卡夫食品、宜家、Levi Strauss and Co.，还有一些是在温室气体议定书倡议中，公司在该倡议中测量其产品生命周期和供应链的碳排放量。在管理文献中，关于企业如何在其整个供应链中有效协调环境管理的知识很少，最重要的是，关于企业如何在整个供应链中实现理想的环境绩效而不损害其业务绩效的知识很少。尽管最近的一些研究表明，（与供应商和客户在环境管理方面的合作）可以带来更好的运营和环境绩效，这种概念的有效性还有待彻底证明和理解。本研究将环境合作的概念提升到一个新的概念，称为绿色供应链集成（GSCI），这是实现绿色供应链绩效的更具战略性和综合性的方法。该研究计划确定绿色供应链一体化的有效做法，可以同时改善发展中国家和发达国家（香港，中国，泰国和英国）的公司的运营和环境绩效。它将揭示各种绿色供应链整合实践的互补效应，以及可能支持或抑制这种努力的监管、竞争优先级、供应链结构等因素。这项研究是重要的，因为大多数供应链是全球分散的，但每个公司都需要同时实现上级运营和环境绩效。这是一项及时的研究，因为现在已经认识到需要在全球供应链中有效地协调环境实践，但缺乏对如何实现运营和环境绩效突破的见解。

In recent years many firms from developed and developing countries have seriously started to initiate green supply chain management to achieve greater efficiency and reduce environmental impacts of their supply chains. To become greener, many firms have now realized the need to collaborate or integrate with their supply chain partners to implement environmental management. Such efforts are noted from the participation of more than 120 companies, including British Telecom Group, Vospre Thornycroft Group Plc, Kraft Foods, IKEA, Levi Strauss and Co., and others, in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, where firms measure carbon emissions of their product life cycle and supply chains. In the management literature, there is a paucity of knowledge about how firms may effectively coordinate environmental management across their supply chains, and most importantly, how firms can achieve desirable environmental performance throughout a supply chain without compromising their operational performance. Even though some recent studies indicate that environmental collaboration (collaboration with suppliers and customers in environmental management) could lead to both better operational and environmental performance, the effectiveness of such a concept is yet to be thoroughly proven and understood.This research elevates the concept of environmental collaboration to a novel concept called Green Supply Chain Integration (GSCI), which is a more strategic and integrative approach to achieving green supply chain performance. The research plans to identify the effective practices of Green Supply Chain Integration that can simultaneously improve operational and environmental performance of firms from developing and developed countries (Hong Kong, China, Thailand and UK). It will reveal the complementary effects of various Green Supply Chain Integration practices and factors such as regulation, competitive priority, supply chain structure which may support or inhibit such efforts. This research is importance because most supply chains are globally fragmented and yet every firm needs to simultaneously achieve superior operational and environmental performance. It is a timely research because the needs to effectively coordinate environmental practices in a global supply chain have now been recognised but there is a lack of insights into how breakthrough in operational and environmental performance can be achieved.