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Green supply chain research: past, present, and future

Green supply chain research: past, present, and future Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 DOI 10.1007/s12159-012-0071-3 REVIEW AR TICLE Hokey Min Ilsuk Kim Received: 8 October 2011 / Accepted: 4 February 2012 / Published online: 18 February 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract In the past several decades, great strides have this industry trend, the interest of academia on sustain- been made to incorporate the ethical and environmental ability has also begun to increase substantially in the late responsibilities into the core culture of today’s business 1990s. This growing interest sparked a series of new lines world. With the increased attention paid to such responsi- of research dealing with various supply chain activities that bilities, a growing number of firms have explored have important environmental implications. These activi- ‘‘greening’’ (environmental-friendly) initiatives as their ties include sourcing that involves acquiring, storing, han- competitive strategic weapons. This paper traces the evo- dling, and recovering virgin or recycled materials. In lution of green supply chain research, synthesizes the past sourcing, for example, the failure to reduce the obsoles- and current research efforts to develop a viable green cence and waste of maintenance, repair, and operating supply chain strategy, and then proposes promising future (MRO) supplies or scrap materials can contribute to envi- research themes related to this strategy. ronmental problems. In manufacturing, for example, the irresponsible disposal of defective products or unwanted Keywords Green supply chain management  manufacturing by-products can adversely impact the envi- Sustainability  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) ronment. Likewise, logistics reliance on transportation modes such as trucks and airplanes using fossil burning fuels and the subsequent emission of CO can pollute the 1 Introduction living environment such as air, water, and ground. One of the first attempts to consider the environmental implica- Realizing that sustainability can drive the improvement of tions of supply chain activities includes: [5, 12, 18]. To the company’s bottom line through cost savings, improved elaborate, Sarkis [12] identified potential research agenda market share, and stronger brand images, a growing number by linking environmentally conscious manufacturing to supply chain management. Min and Galle [5] examined the of firms have begun to take ‘‘greening’’ (environmental- friendly) initiatives as their strategic weapons. Following impact of environmentalism on purchasing practices and identified a variety of environmental factors influencing the supplier selection decision through the empirical study. H. Min (&) Based on the in-depth case study of furniture companies, James R. Good Chair in Global Supply Chain Strategy, Research Director of the Supply Chain Management Institute, Walton et al. [18] discovered that environmentally friendly Department of Management, BAA 3008C, College of Business supply chain practices could help the company lower cost Administration, Bowling Green State University, and better serve its customers. Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA Following suit, a series of studies dealing with the e-mail: hmin@bgsu.edu environmental implications of supply chain practices were I. Kim conducted, and the body of literature on green supply chain Department of Management, BAA 3019C, College management has grown dramatically over the last two of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, decades [1, 10, 14, 15]. Despite this explosive growth of Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA green supply chain research, there are still numerous e-mail: ikim@bgsu.edu 123 40 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 opportunities for further studies and scientific investiga- relevant to the above definition of GSCM, we utilized tions. To identify these opportunities while avoiding the several literature search methods specified below. duplications of past research efforts, the main objectives of this paper are to: (1) classify the past literature on 2.1 Literature search media green supply chain management (GSCM) through the structured taxonomy; (2) develop a frame of references; Prior to locating past research works relevant to GSCM, we (3) chronicle the evolution of the GSCM research for the need to choose the target populations that will be the ref- last 15 years; (4) identify the emerging trends of erences of this literature review. Our target populations are GSCM research; and (5) point the direction of future primarily articles published in refereed scholarly journals research. that fit into the definition of GSCM made earlier. Excluded are parts of the book chapters, dissertations/theses, working papers, white papers, and proceeding papers presented in 2 Research framework the academic conferences. We also excluded published articles that dealt with generic environmental issues, but Despite the relative youth of GSCM research, its body of had no direct bearing on supply chain management. In other literature is abundant. Given this rich GSCM literature, it is words, our literature review primarily focuses on the prior important for us to examine, evaluate, and integrate prior studies addressing environmental issues associated with the studies related to the topic of GSCM. Without the effort to business activities of sourcing, making, and delivering. To synthesize prior GSCM research, we may end up dupli- avoid the reference biases, the primary means to find the cating what has already been studied, fail to develop a new target publications includes a variety of reference-retrieval theory built upon the previous efforts of others, and sources: on-line keyword search through Google, Google experience difficulty in identifying emerging research Scholar, Thomson Reuter Web of Science, and Dow Jones agenda that were often overlooked in the past. This effort Factiva; the educational database search via the Academic begins with the retrieval of past research works on GSCM Source Complete (ASC) and Electronic Journal Center through the on-line literature search, a summary of research (EJC) of Ohio Link; EBSCO Business Source Complete outcomes, critiques of prior research works, identification database; keyword search through the ABI/INFORM TM of key research themes and popular research streams, and Research database and the Procite database in which integration of past research efforts. To elaborate, we first the past literature has been classified according to content- defined GSCM in the broadest possible sense so that we and methodology-oriented criteria; the perusal of tables of could conduct thorough literature searches and determine contents of the key academic journals (e.g., Journal of how GSCM literature was evolved from the theoretical Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Dis- underpinnings of other related social science, economics, tribution and Logistics Management, International Journal business, and engineering fields. To avoid confusion cre- of Logistics: Research and Applications, International ated by a lack of consensus on GSCM terminology and the Journal of Logistics Management, International Journal of introduction of rivaling concepts such as sustainable supply Logistics Systems and Management, Journal of Operations chain management (SSCM) propagated by some circles of Management, International Journal of Production the academia, we would like to define GSCM as an Research, International Journal of Operations and Pro- incorporation of environment-friendly initiatives into every duction Management, Journal of Supply Chain Manage- aspect of supply chain activities encompassing sourcing, ment, Supply Chain Management: An International product design and development, manufacturing, trans- Journal) in the fields of supply chain management; and portation, packaging, storage, retrieval, disposal, and post- tracking articles listed in the reference sections of widely sales services including end-of-product life management. cited GSCM articles. Examples of keywords that we used Herein, the examples of environment-friendly initiatives include: ‘‘green supply chains,’’ ‘‘sustainable supply include the company-wide environmental guidelines/pol- chains,’’ ‘‘closed-loop supply chains,’’ ‘‘reverse logistics,’’ icy, compliance with environmental regulations (e.g., U.S. ‘‘environmental-friendly sourcing,’’ ‘‘green purchasing,’’ Environmental Protection Agency rules, European Union ‘‘hazardous material transportation,’’ ‘‘industrial ecology,’’ environmental regulations) and standards (e.g., ISO 14000 and ‘‘remanufacturing.’’ Due to the sheer size of the initial environmental management standards), supplier certifica- search results—ASC alone produced more than 400 tion and selection based on its commitment to sustain- entries—we perused the abstracts of only the published ability, use of renewable energy (e.g., sunlight, wind, rain, articles to see whether they contained any keywords related and geothermal heat), use of biofuels, use of degradable or to supply chain management and then screened them one by compostable packages, and environmental performance one. To delimit the number of publications, we excluded monitoring. To systematically locate past research works articles that did not incorporate environmental initiatives 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 41 into any aspect of supply chain management (i.e., sourcing, • Green Logistics, which deals with environmental issues making, and delivering) or the ones that failed to integrate related to sustainable transportation, hazardous material environmental thinking with supply chain perspectives. For handling and storage, inventory control, warehousing, example, publications that discussed environmental policy, packaging, and facility location-allocation decisions that aim to reduce carbon footprints (see, e.g., [8]). pollution control, waste management, or life cycle assess- ment, but had no direct ties to sourcing, making, and • Reverse Logistics, which improves logistics efficiency in handling returned or recycled products and managing delivering activities were omitted from the list. In other words, content analysis was performed to examine any waste disposal and removal after the end of a product life cycle (see, e.g., [16]). relationships between the concept of environmental think- ing and that of supply chain management in the context of In terms of the research methodologies, the papers are the published article. Since the term ‘‘supply chain man- categorized into the following areas: agement’’ was rarely used in the 1980s and earlier, we primarily focused on the articles published in 1995 and • Conceptual Those expository studies that discuss the strategic importance of greening initiatives to supply later. The complete literature search through the multiple media specified above yielded a total of more than 519 chain management and summarize emerging trends and/or newer environmental quality concepts based on articles as of December 31, 2010. qualitative analyses. • Case study Those intensive studies primarily focused 2.2 The taxonomy of the GSCM literature on idiosyncratic nature of a single or several real-life To provide an organized look at the published literature examples that reflect the relevance/irrelevance of and review it in a systematic fashion, we develop the certain theories or prescriptions. Case studies as a taxonomy of the GSCM literature. This taxonomy will help research methodology explain, explore, or describe a phenomenon of interest. This requires a methodolog- the researcher identify hot research fields of GSCM, neglected areas of research, and research trends. In terms of ically rigorous and accurate representation of actual data and multiple sources of evidence. Thus, the the subject areas of research, this study classified the published GSCM articles into six areas of applications. purposes, presentation of data, and methods for gath- ering data may differ among cases [2]. However, real- These six categories are developed by taking into account a sufficient number of published articles (at least a total of 40 life contexts under special focus of the case study are not perfect representation of the population and thus hits) in the each cluster of categories and the typical breakdown of key supply chain activities (sourcing, mak- can be questioned for generality and consistency [3]. • Exploratory Those employing descriptive data analyses ing, and delivering): based on the questionnaire survey data that intend to • Policy, which is mainly concerned with business ethics identify the most prevalent environmental practices and and corporate social responsibility tied to triple bottom synthesize the common opinions of practitioners lines (namely the three pillars of people, planet, and regarding environmental initiatives. This type of meth- profit), environmental policy guidelines addressing odology that often relies on the summary statistics is public community concerns, environmental audits, less concerned about theory building or theory refine- statutory requirements, and government regulations. ment (see, e.g., [9] for an application of an exploratory • Synthesis, which portrays a broad picture (e.g., litera- study to the logistics area). ture reviews, research agenda explorations, and tutori- • Empirical Those based on a social science research als) of green supply chain management that cuts across tradition that aims to develop, advance, and refine the different boundaries (business activities integrating theories through hypotheses testing by employing sourcing, making, and delivery processes) of supply rigorous statistical data analyses such as a structural chain management. equation model or other forms of confirmatory data • Purchasing, which focuses on environmental issues analysis such as path analysis that helps find cause– related with supplier–buyer relationship, environmen- effect relationships among a set of variables. This type tally sound sourcing decisions, and supplier certifica- of methodology is increasingly used to build theories in tion and selection based on environmental quality the GSCM literature (see, e.g., [13] for a methodolog- standards such as ISO 14000 guidelines (see, e.g., [5]). ical foundation of an empirical study). • Manufacturing, which pays attention to remanufactur- • Analytic Those employing quantitative tools such as ing, environmental-friendly product design and devel- integer programming, dynamic programming, goal opment that aims to reduce pollution and harmful waste programming, nonlinear programming, and other (e.g., see, [4]). 123 42 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 techniques such as simulation, systems dynamic mod- In terms of the research methodology, the analytic eling, or soft systems methodologies (SSM) (see, e.g., papers representing the hard core of the traditional opera- [17]). tions management paradigm or that of industrial engi- neering case study takes up the overwhelming majority with a total count of 171 papers, and the case studies comprise the second largest with a total of 143 papers. 3 The analysis of prior GSCM literature Though perceived to be less rigorous than analytic or empirical studies due to its expository nature, conceptual The detailed analysis of prior GSCM literature can provide papers seem to be almost on a par with case studies with a us with a glimpse of what was investigated, observed, and total of 117 papers. discovered, which areas of concern are overlooked by past Figure 1 shows the trend in the number of published studies, how those studies are typically conducted, and GSCM articles by the year of publication. Reflecting the where those studies are published. With this in mind, we growing strategic importance and popularity, the number of summarize the detailed analysis of the past GSCM litera- GSCM papers has steadily increased over the last 15 years. ture published for the last 15 years. Especially, we have witnessed a surge in the number of GSCM publications in 2010, signaling the explosive growth of this line of research. After a slight decline in 3.1 Key publication outlets 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2009, the number of GSCM publications nicely rebounded in 2008 and 2010 and Based on this preliminary search, the academic journals in actually peaked in 2010 with a total of 78 publications. business and in other related areas where GSCM issues are Figure 2 shows the number of GSCM publications by published were identified. Those are listed in Table 1. the research methodology. Overall, an analytic method is Although some specialty journals exclusively devoted to the most favored research methodology, which was fol- environmental issues such as Journal of Cleaner Produc- lowed by case study and conceptual methods. In particular, tion tops the list, many traditional supply chain journals the number of analytical papers surged from the year 2007 such as International Journal of Production Research, onward, whereas case studies tapered off. Especially, we International Journal of Production Economics, European have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of analytical Journal of Operational Research, and International Jour- papers in 2010. A rapid growth of analytical papers is due nal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management in part to the increased popularity of reverse logistics round out the top five list. This fact implies that sustain- modeling. ability has been deeply ingrained in the supply chain dis- Figure 3 shows the numbers of papers by the research cipline and has become one of the hottest and emerging areas published each year. The papers dealing with the topics in the supply chain field. On the other hand, there are reverse logistics issues show the most visible growth, the a growing number of specialty journals exclusively dedi- year 2006 onward in particular. The popularity of reverse cated to environmental issues that cover GSCM issues as logistics studies reflects the increased public appeal and shown in Table 1. Examples of those journals include: acceptance of reuse, recycling, and reduction of the amount Greener Management International; Journal of Environ- of virgin materials used. Also, thriving e-tailing businesses mental Management; Resources, Conservation and Recy- increased the chance of returned products, which created cling; Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental more challenging reverse logistics problems. These prob- Management; Journal of Industrial Ecology; and Corpo- lems became a popular subject of GSCM research as rate Environmental Strategy. revealed by the content analysis of the reverse logistics literature [10]. In addition, green logistics seemed to bring 3.2 The research classification more attention to GSCM researchers in 2010. This upward pattern reflects the company’s increased efforts to reduce According to the taxonomy developed earlier, the extant greenhouse gas emissions associated with manufacturing, literature on GSCM was categorized with respect to its product use, and recycling. For example, Apple began to focused research area and methodology as recapitulated in estimate its total carbon footprints associated with its Table 2. manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling using the In terms of the research area, reverse logistics turns out comprehensive lifecycle analysis in 2010. On the other to be the most popular theme with a total count of 198 hand, after peaking in 2008, the GSCM research dealing papers out of 519 GSCM papers. A subject of the envi- with policy and strategic issues has begun to decline for the ronmental policy is the second most popular theme with a last several years. This pattern reflected the fact that an total of 82 papers. increased government involvement in mitigating negative 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 43 Table 1 A list of popular publication outlets for GSCM research Table 1 continued Journal name Number of Popularity Journal name Number of Popularity GSCM ranking GSCM ranking articles articles published published Journal of Cleaner Production 134 1 Technovation 2 33 International Journal of Production 49 2 Advanced Robotics 2 33 Research Benchmarking: An International Journal 2 33 International Journal of Production 36 3 Clean Technologies and Environmental 233 Economics Policy European Journal of Operational Research 32 4 Environmental Quality Management 2 33 International Journal of Physical 19 5 European Management Journal 2 33 Distribution and Logistics Management Industrial Management and Data Systems 2 33 Computers and Industrial Engineering 18 6 International Journal of Quality and 233 International Journal of Logistics Systems 18 6 Reliability Management and Management Journal of Business Research 2 33 Supply Chain Management: An 18 6 Journal of Management Studies 2 33 International Journal Management Science 2 33 Journal of Operations Management 14 9 Transportation Journal 2 33 Business Strategy & the Environment 14 9 Academy of Management Perspectives 1 46 International Journal of Logistics: 13 11 Agricultural Systems 1 46 Research and Applications Business Ethics: A European Review 1 46 Greener Management International 12 12 Decision Sciences 1 46 Omega 10 13 Ecological Economics 1 46 International Journal of Operations and 914 Production Management Eco-Management and Auditing 1 46 Journal of Business Logistics 7 15 European Journal of Innovation 146 Management Journal of Supply Chain Management 715 (including the International Journal of Global Journal of Flexible Systems 146 Purchasing and Materials Management) Management Production and Operations Management 6 17 Growth and Change 1 46 Journal of Environmental Management 6 17 International Journal of Computer 146 Integrated Manufacturing Transportation Research E: Logistics and 617 Transportation Review International Journal of Environmental 146 Science and Technology International Journal of Logistics 520 Management International Journal of Environmental 146 Technology and Management Journal of Manufacturing Technology 520 Management International Journal of Organizational 146 Innovation Interfaces 4 22 International Journal of Productivity and 146 Resources, Conservation and Recycling 4 22 Performance Management Academy of Management Journal 4 22 International Journal of Retail and 146 Corporate Social Responsibility and 422 Distribution Management Environmental Management International Journal of Technology 146 Journal of Purchasing and Supply 422 Management Management (including the European Journal of Economics and Management 146 Journal of Purchasing and Supply Strategy Management) Journal of Business Approach 1 46 Journal of Business Ethics 3 27 Journal of Business Strategy 1 46 California Management Review 3 27 Journal of Corporate Citizenship 1 46 British Journal of Management 3 29 Journal of Economics and Management 146 Corporate Environmental Strategy 3 29 Strategy International Journal of Services and 329 Journal of Environmental Economics and 146 Operations Management Management OR Spektrum 3 29 Journal of Industrial Ecology 2 33 123 44 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 Table 1 continued world-wide financial crises. For instance, in the U.S., the Obama Administration recently has taken unprecedented Journal name Number of Popularity actions to build a foundation for clean energy economy, GSCM ranking articles tackle the issue of climate change (e.g., global warming), published and develop a blueprint for the sustainable environmental future. This type of government actions might have Journal of Environmental Planning and 146 inspired more research focusing on the environmental Management policy in the past, but lost their clouts for the last several Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 1 46 years due to prolonged economic downturns. Journal of International Consumer 146 Marketing Journal of International Entrepreneurship 1 46 Journal of Manufacturing Systems 1 46 4 A summary of the research findings, trends, and future research implications Journal of Quality Management 1 46 Journal of Technology Management and 146 Innovation Base on our analysis of the past GSCM literature, the Knowledge-Based Systems 1 46 following points are noteworthy: Logistics Information Management 1 46 1. With an exception of Journal of Cleaner Production, Logistics Research 1 46 the main stream business journals (e.g., operations Management Decision 1 46 management and supply chain management) still play Management of Environmental Quality: 146 a prominent role as a viable forum or as a popular An International Journal publication outlet for the GSCM research activities Management Research News 1 46 despite the emergence of specialty journals exclusively Management Research Review 1 46 dedicated to environmental issues. Manufacturing and Service Operations 146 2. The research activities dealing with sustainable trans- Management portation and warehousing, the life cycle assessment of Mathematical and Computer Modeling 1 46 logistics activities from the environmental perspective, Production and Inventory Management 146 Journal and environmentally conscious sourcing (purchasing) Robotics and Computer Integrated 146 are scant relative to those studies focusing on manu- Manufacturing facturing (e.g., green production/design, remanufac- Supply Chain Forum: International Journal 1 46 turing) and reverse logistics. As such, more future The Review of Economics and Statistics 1 46 research efforts should be directed toward the impact analyses of transportation (e.g., alternative fuel) and The journal outlets listed in this table are not exhaustive warehousing activities (e.g., recycling of pallets and packages) as well as sourcing practices (e.g., supplier selection and competitive bidding), which encouraged externalities created by environmental degradation has lost many tiers of suppliers to comply with environmental its steam in the recent past. In other words, even though a regulations and rules. growing number of government entities across the world 3. Despite the increased government involvement in introduced business incentives (e.g., low-interest loans, environmental protection and pollution control in the subsidies, tax benefits) for the company’s greening initia- recent past, the GSCM studies that focus on policy tives, there is a growing concern over the impact of tougher issues are declining as evidenced by its dwindling environmental regulations on economy in times of ongoing number of publications for the last 3 years (from a Table 2 The breakdown by the Conceptual Case study Exploratory Empirical Analytic Total research area and methodology Policy 21 19 9 24 9 82 Synthesis 29 17 2 7 8 63 Purchasing 12 29 7 16 15 79 Manufacturing 8 24 3 5 14 54 Green logistics 12 9 2 3 17 43 Reverse logistics 35 45 6 4 108 198 Total 117 143 29 59 171 519 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 45 Fig. 1 The number of papers published each year Fig. 2 The number of papers by the methodologies Fig. 3 The number of papers by the research areas peak of 16 papers in 2008 to 8 papers in 2010, suggests that GSCM research is interdisciplinary by resulting in 50% drop for a 3 year span). nature. However, the analysis of the past literature 4. The presence of the large percentage (27.94% of total reveals that the use of research tools that reflect its GSCM publications) of policy and synthesis papers interdisciplinary nature are still lacking. As such, there that intersects the number of different disciplines is a growing need for the use of hybrid research 123 46 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 methodologies (e.g., a mixture of both case study and descriptive in their nature. In particular, it should be analytic methods) that combine the merits of different noted that the use of the empirical research method- research tools and address interdependent environmen- ology for manufacturing, green logistics, and reverse tal issues encompassing the entire spectrum (from the logistics is very rare, as evidenced by a mere five upstream to downstream) of supply chain issues. empirical studies of manufacturing, four in reverse 5. It is apparent that the case study method is still the logistics, and only three in green logistics, whereas popular research methodology for GSCM due in part there exists 24 empirical studies dealing with environ- to the increased difficulty in collecting empirical or mental policy issues. A majority of the empirical secondary data. There is no doubt that this pattern will studies on environmental policy were primarily inter- continue in the future given the increased recognition ested in examining whether the adoption of greening of this type of a research method as the legitimate initiatives or policy guidelines has a positive impact on research tool given the practical importance of envi- the financial performance or the competitiveness of the ronmental initiatives and the company’s interest in firm adopting company-wide environmental policy or best-in-class environmental practices. However, in the vice versa. GSCM research field, it should be noted that a 8. Logistics is the most dominant theme of GSCM relatively large number of GSCM case studies were research, representing 46.44% of the total publications. concentrated in the reverse logistics, purchasing, and Yet the past GSCM literature pertaining to logistics manufacturing areas. These studies do not necessarily was heavily tilted toward reverse logistics, whereas a meet the rigor or orthodox norm of case research green logistics aspect was somewhat overlooked. In methods needed in the supply chain field in the particular, research dealing with hazardous material sense that most existing case studies in those areas transportation and storage is lacking despite its grow- (especially manufacturing area) did not go beyond ing importance to supply chain security in the after- the summaries of anecdotal stories heard from math of September 11. practitioners. 6. The analytics method, usually adopted as a way to handle routine operational problems involving the collection, sorting, consolidation, transfer, routing, and 5 Conclusions disposal of returned or recycled products have become the dominant method of choice for the reverse logistics The world population has grown almost exponentially over the last century. As of 2011, it reached the seven billion studies, as evidenced by the presence of 108 analytical papers out of the total of 198 reverse logistics studies mark, representing more than 430% jump from an estimate of 1.6 billion people at the beginning of twentieth century (accounts for 54.55% of the reverse logistics research). The popularity of analytical methods that relied on [11]. As the world population continues to grow tremen- dously, resources in our planet earth are further strained. mathematical programming, simulation, and heuristics solution procedures for reverse logistics may stem Without finding systematic ways to sustain our resources and surrounding environments, the quality of our lives will from the fact that the reverse logistics problems were deteriorate rapidly and may reach the point of no return. relatively well-defined and structured (e.g., [6, 7]). Thus, it is easier for the model builder to develop One of such ways includes the environment-friendly management of supply chain activities from the beginning systematic decision-aid tools such as mathematical models and solution algorithms. However, as environ- to the end, which is dubbed GSCM. For the last 15 years, we have seen a wealth of articles addressing GSCM-related mental issues cut across different functional areas of the supply chain and encompasses the different level of issues. In an effort to gain valuable insights into the evo- lution of GSCM research and grow this line of research decision-making hierarchy (from operational to strate- gic), there is a growing need for a more fluid, open further, this paper describes the past development and current state of GSCM research, synthesizes the focused research methodology such as soft operations research (O.R.) tools that can effectively deal with ill-defined, areas of GSCM research, captures the emerging perspec- less structured environmental issues facing practicing tives of GSCM research, and points the directions for future research opportunities. As the GSCM research is managers and policy makers. 7. The empirical methodology, despite being recognized beginning to mature as a subfield of mainstream supply chain studies, we should not lose sight of major drivers of as a hallmark of rigorous supply chain research, constitutes a mere 11.37% (59 out of 519 papers). This GSCM: the incorporation of eco-efficiency into value chains, links among sourcing, making, and delivering indicates that much of the GSCM research methodol- ogies are largely expository, exploratory, and activities, and externalities influencing those activities. 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 47 9. Niemeier D (1999) An exploratory study: a new methodology for Regardless of research focus and methodology, the con- estimating unpaved road miles and vehicle activity on unpaved tinued investigation of these drivers should help the GSCM roads. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of Califor- research field mature and refresh. nia, Davis, Davis 10. Pokharel S, Mutha A (2009) Perspectives in reverse logistics: a review. Resour Conserv Recycling 53(4):175–182 11. Rosenberg M (2011) Current world population and world popu- lation growth since the year one. http://geography.about.com/ References od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm, retrieved on 27 Dec 2011 1. 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Green supply chain research: past, present, and future

Min, Hokey; Kim, Ilsuk
Logistics Research , Volume 4 (2) – Feb 18, 2012
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Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Springer-Verlag
Subject
Engineering; Engineering Economics, Organization, Logistics, Marketing; Logistics; Industrial and Production Engineering; Simulation and Modeling; Operation Research/Decision Theory
ISSN
1865-035X
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1865-0368
DOI
10.1007/s12159-012-0071-3
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Abstract

Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 DOI 10.1007/s12159-012-0071-3 REVIEW AR TICLE Hokey Min Ilsuk Kim Received: 8 October 2011 / Accepted: 4 February 2012 / Published online: 18 February 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract In the past several decades, great strides have this industry trend, the interest of academia on sustain- been made to incorporate the ethical and environmental ability has also begun to increase substantially in the late responsibilities into the core culture of today’s business 1990s. This growing interest sparked a series of new lines world. With the increased attention paid to such responsi- of research dealing with various supply chain activities that bilities, a growing number of firms have explored have important environmental implications. These activi- ‘‘greening’’ (environmental-friendly) initiatives as their ties include sourcing that involves acquiring, storing, han- competitive strategic weapons. This paper traces the evo- dling, and recovering virgin or recycled materials. In lution of green supply chain research, synthesizes the past sourcing, for example, the failure to reduce the obsoles- and current research efforts to develop a viable green cence and waste of maintenance, repair, and operating supply chain strategy, and then proposes promising future (MRO) supplies or scrap materials can contribute to envi- research themes related to this strategy. ronmental problems. In manufacturing, for example, the irresponsible disposal of defective products or unwanted Keywords Green supply chain management  manufacturing by-products can adversely impact the envi- Sustainability  Corporate social responsibility (CSR) ronment. Likewise, logistics reliance on transportation modes such as trucks and airplanes using fossil burning fuels and the subsequent emission of CO can pollute the 1 Introduction living environment such as air, water, and ground. One of the first attempts to consider the environmental implica- Realizing that sustainability can drive the improvement of tions of supply chain activities includes: [5, 12, 18]. To the company’s bottom line through cost savings, improved elaborate, Sarkis [12] identified potential research agenda market share, and stronger brand images, a growing number by linking environmentally conscious manufacturing to supply chain management. Min and Galle [5] examined the of firms have begun to take ‘‘greening’’ (environmental- friendly) initiatives as their strategic weapons. Following impact of environmentalism on purchasing practices and identified a variety of environmental factors influencing the supplier selection decision through the empirical study. H. Min (&) Based on the in-depth case study of furniture companies, James R. Good Chair in Global Supply Chain Strategy, Research Director of the Supply Chain Management Institute, Walton et al. [18] discovered that environmentally friendly Department of Management, BAA 3008C, College of Business supply chain practices could help the company lower cost Administration, Bowling Green State University, and better serve its customers. Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA Following suit, a series of studies dealing with the e-mail: hmin@bgsu.edu environmental implications of supply chain practices were I. Kim conducted, and the body of literature on green supply chain Department of Management, BAA 3019C, College management has grown dramatically over the last two of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, decades [1, 10, 14, 15]. Despite this explosive growth of Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA green supply chain research, there are still numerous e-mail: ikim@bgsu.edu 123 40 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 opportunities for further studies and scientific investiga- relevant to the above definition of GSCM, we utilized tions. To identify these opportunities while avoiding the several literature search methods specified below. duplications of past research efforts, the main objectives of this paper are to: (1) classify the past literature on 2.1 Literature search media green supply chain management (GSCM) through the structured taxonomy; (2) develop a frame of references; Prior to locating past research works relevant to GSCM, we (3) chronicle the evolution of the GSCM research for the need to choose the target populations that will be the ref- last 15 years; (4) identify the emerging trends of erences of this literature review. Our target populations are GSCM research; and (5) point the direction of future primarily articles published in refereed scholarly journals research. that fit into the definition of GSCM made earlier. Excluded are parts of the book chapters, dissertations/theses, working papers, white papers, and proceeding papers presented in 2 Research framework the academic conferences. We also excluded published articles that dealt with generic environmental issues, but Despite the relative youth of GSCM research, its body of had no direct bearing on supply chain management. In other literature is abundant. Given this rich GSCM literature, it is words, our literature review primarily focuses on the prior important for us to examine, evaluate, and integrate prior studies addressing environmental issues associated with the studies related to the topic of GSCM. Without the effort to business activities of sourcing, making, and delivering. To synthesize prior GSCM research, we may end up dupli- avoid the reference biases, the primary means to find the cating what has already been studied, fail to develop a new target publications includes a variety of reference-retrieval theory built upon the previous efforts of others, and sources: on-line keyword search through Google, Google experience difficulty in identifying emerging research Scholar, Thomson Reuter Web of Science, and Dow Jones agenda that were often overlooked in the past. This effort Factiva; the educational database search via the Academic begins with the retrieval of past research works on GSCM Source Complete (ASC) and Electronic Journal Center through the on-line literature search, a summary of research (EJC) of Ohio Link; EBSCO Business Source Complete outcomes, critiques of prior research works, identification database; keyword search through the ABI/INFORM TM of key research themes and popular research streams, and Research database and the Procite database in which integration of past research efforts. To elaborate, we first the past literature has been classified according to content- defined GSCM in the broadest possible sense so that we and methodology-oriented criteria; the perusal of tables of could conduct thorough literature searches and determine contents of the key academic journals (e.g., Journal of how GSCM literature was evolved from the theoretical Business Logistics, International Journal of Physical Dis- underpinnings of other related social science, economics, tribution and Logistics Management, International Journal business, and engineering fields. To avoid confusion cre- of Logistics: Research and Applications, International ated by a lack of consensus on GSCM terminology and the Journal of Logistics Management, International Journal of introduction of rivaling concepts such as sustainable supply Logistics Systems and Management, Journal of Operations chain management (SSCM) propagated by some circles of Management, International Journal of Production the academia, we would like to define GSCM as an Research, International Journal of Operations and Pro- incorporation of environment-friendly initiatives into every duction Management, Journal of Supply Chain Manage- aspect of supply chain activities encompassing sourcing, ment, Supply Chain Management: An International product design and development, manufacturing, trans- Journal) in the fields of supply chain management; and portation, packaging, storage, retrieval, disposal, and post- tracking articles listed in the reference sections of widely sales services including end-of-product life management. cited GSCM articles. Examples of keywords that we used Herein, the examples of environment-friendly initiatives include: ‘‘green supply chains,’’ ‘‘sustainable supply include the company-wide environmental guidelines/pol- chains,’’ ‘‘closed-loop supply chains,’’ ‘‘reverse logistics,’’ icy, compliance with environmental regulations (e.g., U.S. ‘‘environmental-friendly sourcing,’’ ‘‘green purchasing,’’ Environmental Protection Agency rules, European Union ‘‘hazardous material transportation,’’ ‘‘industrial ecology,’’ environmental regulations) and standards (e.g., ISO 14000 and ‘‘remanufacturing.’’ Due to the sheer size of the initial environmental management standards), supplier certifica- search results—ASC alone produced more than 400 tion and selection based on its commitment to sustain- entries—we perused the abstracts of only the published ability, use of renewable energy (e.g., sunlight, wind, rain, articles to see whether they contained any keywords related and geothermal heat), use of biofuels, use of degradable or to supply chain management and then screened them one by compostable packages, and environmental performance one. To delimit the number of publications, we excluded monitoring. To systematically locate past research works articles that did not incorporate environmental initiatives 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 41 into any aspect of supply chain management (i.e., sourcing, • Green Logistics, which deals with environmental issues making, and delivering) or the ones that failed to integrate related to sustainable transportation, hazardous material environmental thinking with supply chain perspectives. For handling and storage, inventory control, warehousing, example, publications that discussed environmental policy, packaging, and facility location-allocation decisions that aim to reduce carbon footprints (see, e.g., [8]). pollution control, waste management, or life cycle assess- ment, but had no direct ties to sourcing, making, and • Reverse Logistics, which improves logistics efficiency in handling returned or recycled products and managing delivering activities were omitted from the list. In other words, content analysis was performed to examine any waste disposal and removal after the end of a product life cycle (see, e.g., [16]). relationships between the concept of environmental think- ing and that of supply chain management in the context of In terms of the research methodologies, the papers are the published article. Since the term ‘‘supply chain man- categorized into the following areas: agement’’ was rarely used in the 1980s and earlier, we primarily focused on the articles published in 1995 and • Conceptual Those expository studies that discuss the strategic importance of greening initiatives to supply later. The complete literature search through the multiple media specified above yielded a total of more than 519 chain management and summarize emerging trends and/or newer environmental quality concepts based on articles as of December 31, 2010. qualitative analyses. • Case study Those intensive studies primarily focused 2.2 The taxonomy of the GSCM literature on idiosyncratic nature of a single or several real-life To provide an organized look at the published literature examples that reflect the relevance/irrelevance of and review it in a systematic fashion, we develop the certain theories or prescriptions. Case studies as a taxonomy of the GSCM literature. This taxonomy will help research methodology explain, explore, or describe a phenomenon of interest. This requires a methodolog- the researcher identify hot research fields of GSCM, neglected areas of research, and research trends. In terms of ically rigorous and accurate representation of actual data and multiple sources of evidence. Thus, the the subject areas of research, this study classified the published GSCM articles into six areas of applications. purposes, presentation of data, and methods for gath- ering data may differ among cases [2]. However, real- These six categories are developed by taking into account a sufficient number of published articles (at least a total of 40 life contexts under special focus of the case study are not perfect representation of the population and thus hits) in the each cluster of categories and the typical breakdown of key supply chain activities (sourcing, mak- can be questioned for generality and consistency [3]. • Exploratory Those employing descriptive data analyses ing, and delivering): based on the questionnaire survey data that intend to • Policy, which is mainly concerned with business ethics identify the most prevalent environmental practices and and corporate social responsibility tied to triple bottom synthesize the common opinions of practitioners lines (namely the three pillars of people, planet, and regarding environmental initiatives. This type of meth- profit), environmental policy guidelines addressing odology that often relies on the summary statistics is public community concerns, environmental audits, less concerned about theory building or theory refine- statutory requirements, and government regulations. ment (see, e.g., [9] for an application of an exploratory • Synthesis, which portrays a broad picture (e.g., litera- study to the logistics area). ture reviews, research agenda explorations, and tutori- • Empirical Those based on a social science research als) of green supply chain management that cuts across tradition that aims to develop, advance, and refine the different boundaries (business activities integrating theories through hypotheses testing by employing sourcing, making, and delivery processes) of supply rigorous statistical data analyses such as a structural chain management. equation model or other forms of confirmatory data • Purchasing, which focuses on environmental issues analysis such as path analysis that helps find cause– related with supplier–buyer relationship, environmen- effect relationships among a set of variables. This type tally sound sourcing decisions, and supplier certifica- of methodology is increasingly used to build theories in tion and selection based on environmental quality the GSCM literature (see, e.g., [13] for a methodolog- standards such as ISO 14000 guidelines (see, e.g., [5]). ical foundation of an empirical study). • Manufacturing, which pays attention to remanufactur- • Analytic Those employing quantitative tools such as ing, environmental-friendly product design and devel- integer programming, dynamic programming, goal opment that aims to reduce pollution and harmful waste programming, nonlinear programming, and other (e.g., see, [4]). 123 42 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 techniques such as simulation, systems dynamic mod- In terms of the research methodology, the analytic eling, or soft systems methodologies (SSM) (see, e.g., papers representing the hard core of the traditional opera- [17]). tions management paradigm or that of industrial engi- neering case study takes up the overwhelming majority with a total count of 171 papers, and the case studies comprise the second largest with a total of 143 papers. 3 The analysis of prior GSCM literature Though perceived to be less rigorous than analytic or empirical studies due to its expository nature, conceptual The detailed analysis of prior GSCM literature can provide papers seem to be almost on a par with case studies with a us with a glimpse of what was investigated, observed, and total of 117 papers. discovered, which areas of concern are overlooked by past Figure 1 shows the trend in the number of published studies, how those studies are typically conducted, and GSCM articles by the year of publication. Reflecting the where those studies are published. With this in mind, we growing strategic importance and popularity, the number of summarize the detailed analysis of the past GSCM litera- GSCM papers has steadily increased over the last 15 years. ture published for the last 15 years. Especially, we have witnessed a surge in the number of GSCM publications in 2010, signaling the explosive growth of this line of research. After a slight decline in 3.1 Key publication outlets 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2009, the number of GSCM publications nicely rebounded in 2008 and 2010 and Based on this preliminary search, the academic journals in actually peaked in 2010 with a total of 78 publications. business and in other related areas where GSCM issues are Figure 2 shows the number of GSCM publications by published were identified. Those are listed in Table 1. the research methodology. Overall, an analytic method is Although some specialty journals exclusively devoted to the most favored research methodology, which was fol- environmental issues such as Journal of Cleaner Produc- lowed by case study and conceptual methods. In particular, tion tops the list, many traditional supply chain journals the number of analytical papers surged from the year 2007 such as International Journal of Production Research, onward, whereas case studies tapered off. Especially, we International Journal of Production Economics, European have witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of analytical Journal of Operational Research, and International Jour- papers in 2010. A rapid growth of analytical papers is due nal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management in part to the increased popularity of reverse logistics round out the top five list. This fact implies that sustain- modeling. ability has been deeply ingrained in the supply chain dis- Figure 3 shows the numbers of papers by the research cipline and has become one of the hottest and emerging areas published each year. The papers dealing with the topics in the supply chain field. On the other hand, there are reverse logistics issues show the most visible growth, the a growing number of specialty journals exclusively dedi- year 2006 onward in particular. The popularity of reverse cated to environmental issues that cover GSCM issues as logistics studies reflects the increased public appeal and shown in Table 1. Examples of those journals include: acceptance of reuse, recycling, and reduction of the amount Greener Management International; Journal of Environ- of virgin materials used. Also, thriving e-tailing businesses mental Management; Resources, Conservation and Recy- increased the chance of returned products, which created cling; Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental more challenging reverse logistics problems. These prob- Management; Journal of Industrial Ecology; and Corpo- lems became a popular subject of GSCM research as rate Environmental Strategy. revealed by the content analysis of the reverse logistics literature [10]. In addition, green logistics seemed to bring 3.2 The research classification more attention to GSCM researchers in 2010. This upward pattern reflects the company’s increased efforts to reduce According to the taxonomy developed earlier, the extant greenhouse gas emissions associated with manufacturing, literature on GSCM was categorized with respect to its product use, and recycling. For example, Apple began to focused research area and methodology as recapitulated in estimate its total carbon footprints associated with its Table 2. manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling using the In terms of the research area, reverse logistics turns out comprehensive lifecycle analysis in 2010. On the other to be the most popular theme with a total count of 198 hand, after peaking in 2008, the GSCM research dealing papers out of 519 GSCM papers. A subject of the envi- with policy and strategic issues has begun to decline for the ronmental policy is the second most popular theme with a last several years. This pattern reflected the fact that an total of 82 papers. increased government involvement in mitigating negative 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 43 Table 1 A list of popular publication outlets for GSCM research Table 1 continued Journal name Number of Popularity Journal name Number of Popularity GSCM ranking GSCM ranking articles articles published published Journal of Cleaner Production 134 1 Technovation 2 33 International Journal of Production 49 2 Advanced Robotics 2 33 Research Benchmarking: An International Journal 2 33 International Journal of Production 36 3 Clean Technologies and Environmental 233 Economics Policy European Journal of Operational Research 32 4 Environmental Quality Management 2 33 International Journal of Physical 19 5 European Management Journal 2 33 Distribution and Logistics Management Industrial Management and Data Systems 2 33 Computers and Industrial Engineering 18 6 International Journal of Quality and 233 International Journal of Logistics Systems 18 6 Reliability Management and Management Journal of Business Research 2 33 Supply Chain Management: An 18 6 Journal of Management Studies 2 33 International Journal Management Science 2 33 Journal of Operations Management 14 9 Transportation Journal 2 33 Business Strategy & the Environment 14 9 Academy of Management Perspectives 1 46 International Journal of Logistics: 13 11 Agricultural Systems 1 46 Research and Applications Business Ethics: A European Review 1 46 Greener Management International 12 12 Decision Sciences 1 46 Omega 10 13 Ecological Economics 1 46 International Journal of Operations and 914 Production Management Eco-Management and Auditing 1 46 Journal of Business Logistics 7 15 European Journal of Innovation 146 Management Journal of Supply Chain Management 715 (including the International Journal of Global Journal of Flexible Systems 146 Purchasing and Materials Management) Management Production and Operations Management 6 17 Growth and Change 1 46 Journal of Environmental Management 6 17 International Journal of Computer 146 Integrated Manufacturing Transportation Research E: Logistics and 617 Transportation Review International Journal of Environmental 146 Science and Technology International Journal of Logistics 520 Management International Journal of Environmental 146 Technology and Management Journal of Manufacturing Technology 520 Management International Journal of Organizational 146 Innovation Interfaces 4 22 International Journal of Productivity and 146 Resources, Conservation and Recycling 4 22 Performance Management Academy of Management Journal 4 22 International Journal of Retail and 146 Corporate Social Responsibility and 422 Distribution Management Environmental Management International Journal of Technology 146 Journal of Purchasing and Supply 422 Management Management (including the European Journal of Economics and Management 146 Journal of Purchasing and Supply Strategy Management) Journal of Business Approach 1 46 Journal of Business Ethics 3 27 Journal of Business Strategy 1 46 California Management Review 3 27 Journal of Corporate Citizenship 1 46 British Journal of Management 3 29 Journal of Economics and Management 146 Corporate Environmental Strategy 3 29 Strategy International Journal of Services and 329 Journal of Environmental Economics and 146 Operations Management Management OR Spektrum 3 29 Journal of Industrial Ecology 2 33 123 44 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 Table 1 continued world-wide financial crises. For instance, in the U.S., the Obama Administration recently has taken unprecedented Journal name Number of Popularity actions to build a foundation for clean energy economy, GSCM ranking articles tackle the issue of climate change (e.g., global warming), published and develop a blueprint for the sustainable environmental future. This type of government actions might have Journal of Environmental Planning and 146 inspired more research focusing on the environmental Management policy in the past, but lost their clouts for the last several Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing 1 46 years due to prolonged economic downturns. Journal of International Consumer 146 Marketing Journal of International Entrepreneurship 1 46 Journal of Manufacturing Systems 1 46 4 A summary of the research findings, trends, and future research implications Journal of Quality Management 1 46 Journal of Technology Management and 146 Innovation Base on our analysis of the past GSCM literature, the Knowledge-Based Systems 1 46 following points are noteworthy: Logistics Information Management 1 46 1. With an exception of Journal of Cleaner Production, Logistics Research 1 46 the main stream business journals (e.g., operations Management Decision 1 46 management and supply chain management) still play Management of Environmental Quality: 146 a prominent role as a viable forum or as a popular An International Journal publication outlet for the GSCM research activities Management Research News 1 46 despite the emergence of specialty journals exclusively Management Research Review 1 46 dedicated to environmental issues. Manufacturing and Service Operations 146 2. The research activities dealing with sustainable trans- Management portation and warehousing, the life cycle assessment of Mathematical and Computer Modeling 1 46 logistics activities from the environmental perspective, Production and Inventory Management 146 Journal and environmentally conscious sourcing (purchasing) Robotics and Computer Integrated 146 are scant relative to those studies focusing on manu- Manufacturing facturing (e.g., green production/design, remanufac- Supply Chain Forum: International Journal 1 46 turing) and reverse logistics. As such, more future The Review of Economics and Statistics 1 46 research efforts should be directed toward the impact analyses of transportation (e.g., alternative fuel) and The journal outlets listed in this table are not exhaustive warehousing activities (e.g., recycling of pallets and packages) as well as sourcing practices (e.g., supplier selection and competitive bidding), which encouraged externalities created by environmental degradation has lost many tiers of suppliers to comply with environmental its steam in the recent past. In other words, even though a regulations and rules. growing number of government entities across the world 3. Despite the increased government involvement in introduced business incentives (e.g., low-interest loans, environmental protection and pollution control in the subsidies, tax benefits) for the company’s greening initia- recent past, the GSCM studies that focus on policy tives, there is a growing concern over the impact of tougher issues are declining as evidenced by its dwindling environmental regulations on economy in times of ongoing number of publications for the last 3 years (from a Table 2 The breakdown by the Conceptual Case study Exploratory Empirical Analytic Total research area and methodology Policy 21 19 9 24 9 82 Synthesis 29 17 2 7 8 63 Purchasing 12 29 7 16 15 79 Manufacturing 8 24 3 5 14 54 Green logistics 12 9 2 3 17 43 Reverse logistics 35 45 6 4 108 198 Total 117 143 29 59 171 519 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 45 Fig. 1 The number of papers published each year Fig. 2 The number of papers by the methodologies Fig. 3 The number of papers by the research areas peak of 16 papers in 2008 to 8 papers in 2010, suggests that GSCM research is interdisciplinary by resulting in 50% drop for a 3 year span). nature. However, the analysis of the past literature 4. The presence of the large percentage (27.94% of total reveals that the use of research tools that reflect its GSCM publications) of policy and synthesis papers interdisciplinary nature are still lacking. As such, there that intersects the number of different disciplines is a growing need for the use of hybrid research 123 46 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 methodologies (e.g., a mixture of both case study and descriptive in their nature. In particular, it should be analytic methods) that combine the merits of different noted that the use of the empirical research method- research tools and address interdependent environmen- ology for manufacturing, green logistics, and reverse tal issues encompassing the entire spectrum (from the logistics is very rare, as evidenced by a mere five upstream to downstream) of supply chain issues. empirical studies of manufacturing, four in reverse 5. It is apparent that the case study method is still the logistics, and only three in green logistics, whereas popular research methodology for GSCM due in part there exists 24 empirical studies dealing with environ- to the increased difficulty in collecting empirical or mental policy issues. A majority of the empirical secondary data. There is no doubt that this pattern will studies on environmental policy were primarily inter- continue in the future given the increased recognition ested in examining whether the adoption of greening of this type of a research method as the legitimate initiatives or policy guidelines has a positive impact on research tool given the practical importance of envi- the financial performance or the competitiveness of the ronmental initiatives and the company’s interest in firm adopting company-wide environmental policy or best-in-class environmental practices. However, in the vice versa. GSCM research field, it should be noted that a 8. Logistics is the most dominant theme of GSCM relatively large number of GSCM case studies were research, representing 46.44% of the total publications. concentrated in the reverse logistics, purchasing, and Yet the past GSCM literature pertaining to logistics manufacturing areas. These studies do not necessarily was heavily tilted toward reverse logistics, whereas a meet the rigor or orthodox norm of case research green logistics aspect was somewhat overlooked. In methods needed in the supply chain field in the particular, research dealing with hazardous material sense that most existing case studies in those areas transportation and storage is lacking despite its grow- (especially manufacturing area) did not go beyond ing importance to supply chain security in the after- the summaries of anecdotal stories heard from math of September 11. practitioners. 6. The analytics method, usually adopted as a way to handle routine operational problems involving the collection, sorting, consolidation, transfer, routing, and 5 Conclusions disposal of returned or recycled products have become the dominant method of choice for the reverse logistics The world population has grown almost exponentially over the last century. As of 2011, it reached the seven billion studies, as evidenced by the presence of 108 analytical papers out of the total of 198 reverse logistics studies mark, representing more than 430% jump from an estimate of 1.6 billion people at the beginning of twentieth century (accounts for 54.55% of the reverse logistics research). The popularity of analytical methods that relied on [11]. As the world population continues to grow tremen- dously, resources in our planet earth are further strained. mathematical programming, simulation, and heuristics solution procedures for reverse logistics may stem Without finding systematic ways to sustain our resources and surrounding environments, the quality of our lives will from the fact that the reverse logistics problems were deteriorate rapidly and may reach the point of no return. relatively well-defined and structured (e.g., [6, 7]). Thus, it is easier for the model builder to develop One of such ways includes the environment-friendly management of supply chain activities from the beginning systematic decision-aid tools such as mathematical models and solution algorithms. However, as environ- to the end, which is dubbed GSCM. For the last 15 years, we have seen a wealth of articles addressing GSCM-related mental issues cut across different functional areas of the supply chain and encompasses the different level of issues. In an effort to gain valuable insights into the evo- lution of GSCM research and grow this line of research decision-making hierarchy (from operational to strate- gic), there is a growing need for a more fluid, open further, this paper describes the past development and current state of GSCM research, synthesizes the focused research methodology such as soft operations research (O.R.) tools that can effectively deal with ill-defined, areas of GSCM research, captures the emerging perspec- less structured environmental issues facing practicing tives of GSCM research, and points the directions for future research opportunities. As the GSCM research is managers and policy makers. 7. The empirical methodology, despite being recognized beginning to mature as a subfield of mainstream supply chain studies, we should not lose sight of major drivers of as a hallmark of rigorous supply chain research, constitutes a mere 11.37% (59 out of 519 papers). This GSCM: the incorporation of eco-efficiency into value chains, links among sourcing, making, and delivering indicates that much of the GSCM research methodol- ogies are largely expository, exploratory, and activities, and externalities influencing those activities. 123 Logist. Res. (2012) 4:39–47 47 9. Niemeier D (1999) An exploratory study: a new methodology for Regardless of research focus and methodology, the con- estimating unpaved road miles and vehicle activity on unpaved tinued investigation of these drivers should help the GSCM roads. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of Califor- research field mature and refresh. nia, Davis, Davis 10. Pokharel S, Mutha A (2009) Perspectives in reverse logistics: a review. Resour Conserv Recycling 53(4):175–182 11. Rosenberg M (2011) Current world population and world popu- lation growth since the year one. http://geography.about.com/ References od/obtainpopulationdata/a/worldpopulation.htm, retrieved on 27 Dec 2011 1. 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Logistics Research – Springer Journals

Published: Feb 18, 2012

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