Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 9, No. 1, February 2020
475
Green Supply Chain Management Practice
and Performance of Manufacturing
Companies in Batu Pahat, Johor
Alina Shamsuddin
#1
, Wan Nurul Karimah Wan Ahmad
2
, Leong
Chun Peng
3
#1, 2, 3
Technology & Innovation Management Focus Group (TIM), Faculty of Technology
Management & Business, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
1
alina@uthm.edu.my
2
karimah@uthm.edu.my
3
eta@uthm.edu.my
Abstract - Environmental issues such as air and water
pollutions are increasing because of the speedy growth
of industrial modernization especially in the
manufacturing industry. The industry is considered as
one of the main sources of environmental problems.
Green supply chain management (GSCM) practices
can help companies in the industry improve firm
sustainability performance through reduction of
environmental risk, at the same time, provide
economic and environmental benefit. In Malaysia,
researchers were more focused on internal
environmental management practices such as the
implementation ISO 14001 and the number of research
on GSCM practices is still low. This research aims to
explore GSCM practices and sustainability
performance through a survey among manufacturing
companies in Batu Pahat, Johor. It also compares the
practices and performance of two case companies
using data gathered from interviews. The findings
reveal that the manufacturing companies in Batu
Pahat had a moderate level of GSCM implementation
and sustainability performance. The GSCM practices
that companies should focus more are internal
environmental management and reverse logistics.
Keywords - Green supply chain management, firm
performance, manufacturing industry
Introduction
Nowadays, governments, societies, and businesses
are giving more attention to environmental issues.
The environmental problems such as global
warming, waste and environmental pollutions had
increased because of the growth of the industrial
activities especially in the manufacturing sector.
Manufacturing companies were considered as the
source of most of the environmental problems [1].
The manufacturing process turns raw materials into
products or goods. However, raw materials leftover
or substances produced may be harmful to the
environment and can cause pollutions. In order to
solve the environmental issues, the Malaysian
manufacturing sector spends around RM1.73 billion
on environmental protection expenditure or 66.9%
of overall contribution across sectors [Department of
Statistics 2].
With the intensification of the competition in the
1990s, awareness of the green supply chain
management (GSCM) practices has increased and
prompted firm to manage their supply chains in
ethically and socially responsible way [3]. GSCM is
a useful tool to improve firm sustainability
performance through reduction of environmental
risk that can provide economic and environmental
benefits [4]. According to Van Hoek [5], GSCM was
developed as a crucial organizational principles to
help companies achieve profit and market share
objectives by decreasing the negative environmental
risks and impacts, while increasing the ecological
benefit of the companies and their partners.
Current GSCM studies were mostly conducted in
developed countries like the United States and
Europe. The results from those researches might not
portray the implementation of GSCM practices in
the Malaysian manufacturing industry. In addition,
researches in Malaysia were more focused on
internal environmental management practices,
specifically the implementation of environmental
management systems such as ISO 14000. Therefore,
this study aims to address the research gap on
GSCM studies in the Malaysian industry context. It
explores the implementation of GSCM practices and
identifies the level of sustainability performance of
manufacturing companies in Batu Pahat, Johor
through a survey. In addition, the study uses
interview to gather data from two case companies
that allows for identification of similarities and
differences of GSCM practices among companies
that operate within the same industry. The findings
can contribute towards increasing our knowledge
regarding the GSCM practices and performance,
which can be used as a guideline for future
improvement and decision making by
manufacturing companies.
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International Journal of Supply Chain Management
IJSCM, ISSN: 2050-7399 (Online), 2051-3771 (Print)
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