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

近年来，许多来自发达国家和发展中国家的公司已经认真地开始启动绿色供应链管理，以实现更高的效率和减少供应链对环境的影响。为了变得更环保，许多公司现在已经意识到需要与他们的供应链合作伙伴合作或整合来实施环境管理。英国电信集团、Vospre Thornycroft集团、卡夫食品、宜家、李维斯公司等120多家公司参与了温室气体协议倡议（Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative），这些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，关于企业如何有效地协调其供应链中的环境管理，以及最重要的是，企业如何在不损害其运营绩效的情况下在整个供应链中实现理想的环境绩效的知识缺乏。尽管最近的一些研究表明，环境合作（与供应商和客户在环境管理方面的合作）可以导致更好的业务和环境绩效，但这种概念的有效性尚未得到彻底证明和理解。本研究将环境协作的概念提升为绿色供应链整合（GSCI）的新概念，这是实现绿色供应链绩效的更具战略性和综合性的方法。研究计划确定绿色供应链整合的有效实践，这些实践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、竞争优先权、供应链结构等因素。这项研究很重要，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卓越的运营和环境绩效。这是一个及时的研究，因为在全球供应链中有效协调环境实践的需求现在已经认识到，但缺乏对如何在运营和环境绩效方面取得突破的见解。

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.