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The Impact of Green Supply Chain Management on Firm’s Performance

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DOI: 10.1142/S0219649220400262

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Journal of Information & Knowledge Management

Vol. 19, No. 1 (2020) 2040026 (16 pages)
.c World Scienti¯c Publishing Co.
#
DOI: 10.1142/S0219649220400262

The Impact of Green Supply Chain Management

on Firm's Performance

Sara Jassim
Faculty of Engineering Management & Systems Engineering
Master of Science Degree in Engineering
Management — O®-Campus Program
The George Washington University
Washington, USA
sarajassim94@gmail.com

Muneer Al-Mubarak
Admin & Finance
Ahlia University, Bahrain
malmubarak@ahlia.edu.bh

Allam Hamdan
College of Business and Finance
Ahlia University, Bahrain
ahamdan@ahlia.edu.bh

Published

Abstract. As the world grows and develops, people become more aware of business operational pro-
cesses that are extremely harmful to our environment. Recently, customers' demands, and governmental
legislations have forced domestic and global organizations to implement environmentally sustainable
practices in order to cure what has been damaged in the previous decades. This study focuses on the
impact of green supply chain management practices on ¯rm's performance. These practices are green
purchasing, green packaging, green manufacturing, green design and green marketing. A questionnaire
was circulated among two companies of two industries: shipping and automobile. 80 managers and
supervisors were targeted; 59 responses were received indicating a response rate of (74%). For testing,
regression analysis and T-test were used. From the analysis, it was found that most of green practices
in°uence ¯rm's performance with green manufacturing the most adopted practice that shapes the in-
dustries, followed by green marketing and green purchasing. On the other hand, little impact was found in
green packaging and negative impact of green design on ¯rm's performance. Overall, the study indicates
that the tested sample is moving towards the green concept but still it is in its ¯rst stages and needs more
e®orts and support from ¯rms, suppliers and customers.

Keywords: Green supply chain management; practices; performance.

1. Introduction
People are extremely aware of all the operational and manufacturing processes that
really damage the environment (Touboulic and Walker, 2015). Global researchers
are interested in studying the in°uence of embodying green practices in business

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S. Jassim, M. Al-Mubarak and A. Hamdan

operations (Al Khattab et al., 2015). Researchers have advanced the concept of
supply chain management (SCM) to a more e®ective concept that is more concerned
with environment (Touboulic and Walker, 2015). During the last 40 years, SCM
became harmful to our environment as it needs more of strategic development to
coordinate business. Responding to the demands of end customer, it is important to
integrate business processes with green strategies (Green et al., 2012). This requires
having green strategies that include; green purchasing, green manufacturing, green
design, green packaging and green marketing (Islam et al., 2017). Each green
strategy has its own uniqueness with di®erent ways of implementation to improve
¯rm's performance (Kenneth et al., 2012). Green purchasing is known as a cooper-
ation between organizations and suppliers to build and develop sustainable products
or services (Zhu et al., 2008a). Green packaging is referred to the process of recycling
and reusing materials to save resources and avoid wastes (Zhou, 2014). Eco-design is
de¯ned as a manufacturing process that reduces consumption of resources and en-
ergy (Kenneth et al., 2012). Green manufacturing concerns with manufacturing
processes and manages the °ow of environmental wastes (Rusinko, 2007). Green
marketing promotes a product based on its environmental performance and is di-
vided into four sets: market analysis, integrated communication practices, supplying,
and pricing (Zampese et al., 2016).
A ¯rm's performance is concerned with several aspects such as economic, envi-
ronment and organisation. Economic performance focuses on pro¯tability and ¯rm's
ability to reduce the costs, environmental performance minimises air emissions,
wastes and toxic materials, and organizational performance monitors marketing
performance (Kenneth et al., 2012). The green supply chain management (GSCM)
term came to light in the last decades and few organizations are truly implementing
it. The importance of environmental protection is increasing due to social awareness,
governmental rules, legislations and global organisations competitiveness as well as
the communities and charities that boost the ecological protection awareness. Since
the SCM is consuming lots of energy, costs and resources, people and ¯rms are more
interested in a healthier environment and e®ective performance. Automobile ¯rms
are consuming lots of resources, materials and energy in order to create su±cient
designs that satisfy their customers. The process of manufacturing and design is
causing a serious burden over the environment and ¯rms' pro¯ts. Firms that deliver
shipments are also facing the same problem as they consume lots of energy on
transportation and packaging processes. For such problems, GSCM can be the right
solution that would recover all that damages with a proper implementation. This
paper focuses on GSCM practices to increase awareness and maximize ¯rm's per-
formance. The study provides an insight on how ¯rms are dealing with green
practices and their in°uence on performance. The aim is to increase the awareness
level among ¯rms on the importance of GSCM practices in maximizing the perfor-
mance by enhancing the existing environmental-friendly system that aims to protect
environment and resources where at the same time increase the ¯rm's performance
level. The contribution of this paper is on measuring the impact of green practices on

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The Impact of Green Supply Chain Management on Firm's Performance

¯rms' performance. The next sections include literature review, presentation of a

conceptual model with associated research hypotheses, elaboration on the study
method used, demonstration of study analysis and discussion, and conclusions along
with implications and future studies.

2. Literature Review
It is extremely important for organizations to balance between the economic and
environmental performances due to the market competitiveness, regulatory and
community pressures. As long as the pressure increases, ¯rms have to implement a
strategy that aims to reduce the ecological impact of their products and services. In
order to apply the governmental rules toward the environment, the enterprises must
success in establishing and reexamining their business purpose (Perotti et al., 2012).
There is good relation between eco-design and ¯rm's performance where eco-design is
linked to market demand (Hasan, 2013). Researchers suggested that merging green
programs within business strategies will not only improve the core competencies but
will also enhance its competitiveness (Khan and Qianli, 2017). Implementing green
design practices leads to an e±cient utilization of energy and water. Firms are giving
priority to ecological issues and incorporating green procedures in their processes to
stay competitive and pro¯table in the market (Sarkar, 2012).
Supply networks are becoming complex and having lots of fragments (Touboulic
and Walker, 2015). At the same time, the social awareness of the surrounding
ecological issues is growing very fast which highly preamble the introduction of the
GSCM in late 1980's. The importance of GSCM is in its capability to handle various
green activities that are related to SCM. Although, GSCM to do a lot with com-
petitiveness, sustainability, and logistics, however, the main challenge in GSCM is
the performance in its several forms like environmental, ¯nancial, economic and
operational (Islam et al., 2017). Recently, it has become extremely important for
organizations to balance between the economic and environmental performance due
to the market competitiveness, regulatory and community pressures. As the pressure
increases, the logistics will have to implement a strategy that aims to reduce
the ecological impact of their products and services (Tachizawa et al., 2015).
The green management practices include many approaches such as, eco-e±ciency,
environmental management systems and clear production (Bjorklund et al., 2012).

2.1. Green supply chain management practices

The pressure for greener and healthier environment grows up to reduce the negative
impact (Fraj et al., 2011). The green supply chain practice (GSCP) ranges from
green purchasing that °ows from supplier to manufacturer to customer, which is
referred as \closing the loop". According to Zhu and Sarkis (2007a), there are three-
fold-e®ects: impact on environmental performance, impact on ¯nancial performance,
and impact on operational performance.

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The internal environmental operations management practices of eco-e±ciency are

intended to convert the input of any services into an output through di®erent steps,
°ows and processes (Hsu et al., 2016). Perotti et al. (2012) concluded that the level of
adoption to GSCP is somehow limited in the economic, operational and ecological
levels. Holt and Ghobadian (2009) said that manufacturers sensed a maximal
pressure to enhance the environmental performance if the legislations, laws and
internal drivers were applied. The green initiatives help ¯rms reducing their handling
costs and expensive inputs. Clear production is resulted by using the advanced
technologies and innovative processes which directly improves the product quality.
GSCM practices meet the environmental goals and enhance the public image of the
¯rms (Sharma, 2013). Firms need to have a unique selling technique for their pro-
ducts and services, but in all cases, protecting the environment is the most important
objective for all ¯rms (Lin et al., 2014). Several practices are getting under the
GSCM umbrella such as green purchasing, green manufacturing, green packaging,
green design, green marketing, reverse logistics, green information systems, green
procurement and green distribution (Srivastava, 2007).
Currently, 93% of ¯rms worldwide are implementing green strategies (Fatah Uddin
and Khan, 2015). In turn, the number of consumers who purchase sustainable goods is
rising and the \green consumption" concept is gaining lots of attention (Punyatoya,
2014). Among all the GSCM practices, buying materials is the most signi¯cant one
because it measures the e®ectiveness of the ¯rm's environmental management. Chien
and Shih (2007) de¯ned green purchasing as a purchasing process that entails envi-
ronmental and social issues with the aim to reduce, reuse and recycle materials through
the supply chain. Products and services are used e®ectively to minimize negative en-
vironmental impacts with regards manufacturing, transportation, use and, recycling
(Sarkar, 2012). Green purchasing is implemented by applying environmental criteria on
products and services (Sarkar, 2012). Using green purchasing creates a good brand
name, lowers pollution, and saves costs (Ramakrishnan et al., 2015). On the other hand,
Packaging is made from di®erent materials which makes it easier to handle and protect
the product. Green packaging supports the development of packaging sustainability
and avoids any harm on human health and environment. Green packaging is all about
recycling the source materials (Zhou, 2014). Burning the trash leads to a new energy
source, while using materials that decompose by itself will not cause pollutions to the
environment. These practices save natural resources and reduces pollution (Besch and
Pålsson, 2016). Green packaging practice enables an e±cient distribution and lowers
environmental e®ects (Islam et al., 2017). Green packaging is praised due to its ability
to reduce waste and improve quality of air. It considers the cost of materials, shipping,
performance, convenience, compliance, and environmental e®ect (Liu et al., 2013).
Manufacturing consumes lots of energy, materials and generates lots of wastes.
Only a successful management system can minimize its negative e®ects. Green
manufacturing is the new way of manufacturing goods. Like any other green prac-
tice, green manufacturing focuses on using resources e±ciently and minimizing
wastes (Namagembe et al., 2016).

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It is a system that integrates issues of products and process design with issues of
manufacturing planning and control. Green manufacturing looks after identifying,
quantifying, assessing, and managing environmental wastes with the aim of better
environment and resource e±ciency (Liu et al., 2013). Green design or eco-design
improves product's outlook and is an environmentally friendly practice. It prevents
the product from harming the environment during manufacturing, distribution and
consumption. It requires designing products in a way that reduces consumption of
energy, facilitates recycling, and reuses of materials e±ciently and environmentally
friendly (Zhu et al., 2008a). The process of green design requires a budget that can be
controlled. There are hundred million of creative designs that can be made and only
the budget can decide which design can ¯t. Being conscious of the budget limitation
will simplify the work process. Lowering the cost, increasing the ¯rm's pro¯t and
developing the design industry depend on utilizing the economic resources rationally
(Yue et al., 2015). Green materials should be non-toxic, non-radioactive, easy
recycling, high performance, paper materials, edible, fast and smooth decomposition
(Besch and Pålsson, 2016). The eco-system cycle of packaging materials used for the
design is important. When the useful life ends for the used product and is back to
manufacturing, the new product must be as good as the previous ones. At the end,
if the materials used are safe, natural and organic, returning them again to soil
and adding fertilizers will be more bene¯cial than energy consumption (Rokka
and Uusitalo, 2008). Green marketing or ecological marketing focuses on solving
ecological problems. All green practices including green marketing help ¯rms
achieving their objectives and satisfy human needs by using materials wisely without
wastes (Peattie, 2001). Green marketing has a wide range of activities including
changing the product's process, modifying the product and changes in the packag-
ing. It contributes in protecting the environment through minimizing the disposal
of goods and services that would spoil the environment. Moving toward the green
concept might be a bit costly, but later on it will prove its e®ectiveness. Further-
more, green products are utilizing green technologies to make harmless products
to the environment. In order to maintain natural resources and keep up the
greenness development, it is important to use clean technologies (Singhal and
Singhal, 2015).

3. Conceptual Model and Hypotheses

Research hypotheses are developed based on a conceptual model that determines
variables. Figure 1 illustrates the study framework that includes ¯ve independent
variables: green purchasing, green packaging, green manufacturing, green design and
green marketing, showing their in°uence on ¯rm's performance, a dependent variable.

3.1. Green practices and performance

Green purchasing encourages recycling without breaking down the system. E±cient
implementation of green purchasing activities has re°ected on costs saving, pollution

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Fig. 1. Research conceptual model.

control and ¯rm's environmental performance (Kleindorfer et al., 2005). Green

purchasing assures the market competitiveness, and works on enhancing ¯rm's
performance (Zailani et al., 2015). The crucial role of green purchasing is its ability
to reduce waste by encouraging recycling activities without interrupting the system
(Khan and Qianli, 2017). Successful implementation of green purchasing system has
controlled the cost of pollution along with some improvements on ¯rm's performance
and reputation in the market (Khan and Qianli, 2017; Islam et al., 2017). Zailani
et al. (2015) found a positive impact of green purchasing over ¯rm's performance and
saving in the environment from the danger of toxic materials. Sustainable pur-
chasing could be seen in ¯ve areas which are supply chain management, ecological,
external environment management, design operation management and environ-
mental authentication (Yang et al., 2014). Thus, green purchasing is a reliable tool
for controlling the environmental pollution, constructing a good green image and
reputation (Khan and Qianli, 2017).
A signi¯cant improvement in packaging process was found when green packaging
was used, as it reduces materials and increases customer's credibility (Tomar and
Oza, 2015). The implementation of green packaging improves productivity and
positively in°uences ¯rm's performance (Islam et al., 2017). Adopting best resources
within the green manufacturing leads to a long-term competitive advantage and
high-quality products with the lowest cost. Green manufacturing technologies
eliminate waste, reduce the manufacturing steps, produce e±cient goods and mini-
mize costs (Narasimhan and Schoenherr, 2012). It improves ¯rm's image and rep-
utation (Khan and Qianli, 2017). Firms integrate total quality management (TQM)
and manufacturing practices with green manufacturing to come up with superior
performance (Murovec et al., 2012). Green manufacturing in°uences competitive
edges of suppliers (Tseng and Chiu, 2013; Subramanian and Gunasekaran, 2014).
Baines et al. (2012) claimed that green manufacturing is having a substantial role in
adopting GSCM practices as it decreases harmful manufacturing activities with
fewer waste in the overall process and improves e±ciency and performance.

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Therefore, green manufacturing practice improves organizational performance

(Tomar and Oza, 2015; Khan and Qianli, 2017; Islam et al., 2017). A sustainable
product is measured based on its impact on the environment throughout its
life. Introducing sustainable products' innovation with eco-design increases
the manufacturing capabilities (Kleindorfer et al., 2005). A large number of ¯rms
implement green design practices in their system just to distinguish themselves form
the markets' competitors (Lin et al., 2013). Büyük€ozkan and Cifçi (2012) said that
implementation of eco-design practices can signi¯cantly improve products and
processes. It protects the environment and enhances ¯rm's sustainability (Zhu et al.,
2007). Green design products have a positive impact on ¯rm's performance where
customers are willing to pay for sustainable products that save the environment (Lin
et al., 2013). Green marketing is a new management term and can in°uence
¯rm's performance (Zampese et al., 2016). Fraj et al. (2011) mentioned that ¯rms'
performance is improved when green marketing strategies are used. Baker and
Sinkula (2005) observed a direct relationship between green marketing and new
products success which in turns increases market shares. Based on the above dis-
cussion, the following hypotheses are postulated:
H1: Green purchasing positively in°uences ¯rm's performance.
H2: Green packaging positively in°uences ¯rm's performance.
H3: Green manufacturing positively in°uences ¯rm's performance.
H4: Green design positively in°uences ¯rm's performance.
H5: Green marketing positively in°uences ¯rm's performance.

4. Method
The quantitative approach was used in this research as it eases interpretation and
explanation of the in°uence of green practices on ¯rms' performance. Gathering rich
and enough information is extensively important to build research results on. Survey
design is an e±cient quantitative approach to gather data and information about the
research to help addressing questions. Data collection of this research was mainly
based on a self-administrated questionnaire (Babbie, 1990). However, each part was
treated di®erently with speci¯c kind of questions and various scales. Fixed-alter-
natives questions (closed-ended questions) were used for respondents to ¯ll in the
personal information part. These questions limit respondents' answers and to choose
the closest one that matches with their opinion (Zikmund et al., 2013). The ques-
tionnaire was divided into three major parts; personal information, general infor-
mation on GSCM, and questions on green practices and ¯rm's performance. Likert-
scale was used to examine responses ranging from 1. (Not at all) 2. (A little bit)
3. (To some degree) 4. (Relatively signi¯cant) to 5. (Carrying it out fully).
The questions of each construct were developed from previous studies (Jain and
Sharma, 2012; Diab et al., 2015; Afande, 2015; Tomar and Oza, 2015; Zampese et al.,
2016; Khan and Qianli, 2017; Islam et al., 2017).

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4.1. Population and sampling

The population of this study consists of ¯rms from two di®erent industries in
Bahrain which are automobile and delivering shipments. This study was conducted
to describe the current status of GSCM practices. The managers were chosen
according to their level of responsibility. It is crucial for each manager to handle the
projects with consideration of health, ecological and safety issues. Accordingly, the
population size of both industries was 80 (number of managers, supervisors and
seniors in both industries). The survey was conducted in ¯ve ¯rms of the automotive
industry and one shipping company. A convenience sampling technique was used.
To calculate a sample size according to the population of 80, 95% con¯dence level
and 10% margin of errors were reached at. Based on the determination, 44 was the
required as a sample size. The full 80 was targeted in the two industries, 59
responded (response rate ¼ 74%), and 48 responses were valid.

4.2. Validity and reliability

Validity is measuring what is supposed to be measured. In other words, the re°ection
of reality on what is represented in the research (Boddy, 2005). The use of validity is
to consider the instrument valid or not, without involving any other factors that can
change the result of the test. Validity does not concentrate on scores, but it considers
the inferences. In order to achieve validity, those inferences have to merge with
scores to be signi¯cant, expressive and bene¯cial (Thanasegaran, 2009). The validity
type of this research is content and it is used when the researcher wants to ¯gure out
the represented behaviour/construct or domain in the test. Basically, it is a logical
method that considers the re°ection of the construct in order to check whether it can
be measured or not. The tested items must e®ectively refer to the representative
domain and sample (Zikmund et al., 2013). The study questionnaire was validated
by two academicians and two practitioners. On the other hand, testing reliability of
any research is essential to assess measurements. It refers to the repetition of a
particular research ¯ndings and quality measurements whether the researchers
concluded similar results from the same ¯ndings. To some extent, reliability con-
siders a research which is free from error. A reliable test produces equal scores (Sousa
et al., 2007). Table 1, shows the study constructs where a Cronbach's alpha test was

Table 1. Alpha cronbach values.

Variable No. of items Cronbach alpha

Green purchasing 5 0.823

Green packaging 5 0.858
Green manufacturing 6 0.908
Green design 5 0.907
Green marketing 6 0.804
Firm's performance 6 0.718
Total items 33

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The Impact of Green Supply Chain Management on Firm's Performance

used to examine the reliability of each construct in the questionnaire. According to

Nunnaly (1978), variables with a greater value than 0.7 are considered reliable.
Based on this parameter, all constructs scored well. Green purchasing scored 0.823,
green packaging scored 0.858, green manufacturing scored 0.908, green design scored
0.907, green marketing scored 0.804 and ¯rm's performance scored 0.718. Moreover,
the coe±cient
of 33 items was 0.836, which refers to a reliable instrument.

5. Analysis and Discussion

A T -test was used in order to measure the di®erences between the two industries.
As shown in Table 2, all the variables are ful¯lling the condition of T -value and
Sig. (T -value > 1:656 and Sig: < 0:1) except green manufacturing because the
manufacturing process is involved in the automobile industry only.
A regression was used after the natural logarithm of the variables is taken so that
we can use linear regression to test hypotheses where the margin of errors is set at
10% and the main equation is as follows:
FP ¼
þ  1 GP þ  2 GPa þ 3 GM þ 4 GD þ 5 GMa þ ";
where
is the Constant,  is the Regression Slope, " is the Random Error, FP is
¯rm's performance, GP is green purchasing, GPa is green packaging, GM is green
manufacturing, GD is green design and GMa is green marketing.
The strength of the general linear model depends on the independency of each
independent variable used in the model. If this condition was not met, then the linear
model is not considered to be good to be applied and used. To test the independency
of the independent variables, to measure the tolerance of each independent variable,
the Collinearity Diagnostics Test was used followed by computation of the Variance
In°ation Factor (VIF) used to measure the e®ect of correlation between the inde-
pendent variables (Gujarati, 2003). If the value of (VIF) is more than (5), that
indicates that there is a problem with the multicollinearity of the measured inde-
pendent variable.
From Table 3, given that VIF values are less than 5 for all the independent
variables, it is clear that the regression equations do not su®er from multicollinearity.

Table 2. T -Test for two industries.

Variable Automobile Shipping Mean T . value Sig.

(T . > 1.656) (Sig. < 0.1)
Mean Std. Mean Std.
deviation deviation

1 Green purchasing 3.280 0.884 3.276 1.258 0.003 0.010 0.992

2 Green packaging 3.102 1.045 3.153 1.435 0.050 0.135 0.893
3 Green manufacturing 3.514 1.087 2.679 1.204 0.834 2.296 0.026
4 Green design 3.268 1.097 2.907 1.537 0.360 0.905 0.370
5 Green marketing 3.614 0.917 3.820 0.762 0.206 0.722 0.474
6 Firm's performance 3.757 0.766 4.038 0.569 0.281 1.203 0.235

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S. Jassim, M. Al-Mubarak and A. Hamdan

Table 3. Testing hypotheses using regression.

Regression model VIF Unstandardized Standardized T Sig. Remarks

coe±cients coe±cients

 Std. Error Beta

Constant 1.313 0.328 — 4.007 0.000 —

Green purchasing 1.846 0.187 0.099 0.254 1.877 0.067 Accept
Green packaging 4.113 0.073 0.089 0.115 0.817 0.419 Reject
Green manufacturing 1.278 0.287 0.077 0.463 3.736 0.001 Accept
Green design 2.864 0.133 0.090 0.224 1.478 0.147 Reject
Green marketing 2.054 0.316 0.103 0.382 3.080 0.004 Accept
R ¼ 0:793, R 2 ¼ 0:629, F ¼ 14:269 and Sig: ¼ 0:000.

The results show three out of ¯ve green practices are supporting the hypotheses
except green packaging and green design. In order to hypotheses, a regression model
was developed as shown in Table 3.
The R percentage is positive and equal to 0.794 showing a strong relationship
between independent variables and dependent variable. Additionally, the R 2 value
refers to the determination coe±cient which is measuring the e®ectiveness of
the predictors over the ¯rm's performance. R 2 is equal to 62%, which means that
increasing the predictors up to 100% will result in increasing the ¯rm's performance
by 62%. The Sig. value is equal to 0.000 and it is less than 0.1 ðSig: < 0:1Þ which
con¯rms the in°uence of green predictors over ¯rm's performance. For green
purchasing, the T . value ¼ 1:877 (T : > 1:656), but Sig. Value ¼ 0:419 (Sig: > 0:1Þ
which support H1. For green packaging, the T -value ¼ 0:817 (T : < 1:656) and Sig.
Value ¼ 0:067 (Sig: > 0:1), therefore, H2 is rejected. For green manufacturing, the
T -value ¼ 3:736 (T : > 1:656), and Sig: ¼ 0:001ðSig: < 0:1Þ which support H3. For
green design the T -value is negative (1:478 < 1:656) and Sig. Value is equal to
0.467 which is greater than 0.05 ðSig: > 0:1Þ, leading to rejection of H4. Finally, for
green marketing, the T -value ¼ 3:080 (T : > 1:656), and Sig: ¼ 0:004 (Sig: < 0:1Þ
which support H5. The overall research ¯ndings give a clear indication that Bahrain
is going on its ¯rst steps toward sustaining businesses strategies but it needs more
e®orts from all parties in order to be a country that leads the green path. The results
of green purchasing are not so high showing minor in°uence on performance. This
could be attributed the suppliers chosen pay less attention to the environment. The
¯nding contradicts with other studies in in Brazil, Malaysia, North America and
Western Europe (Yang et al., 2013; Kannan et al., 2014; Islam et al., 2017). Green
packaging shows slight in°uence on ¯rm's performance due to lack of using eco-labels
in the packaging processes (Liu et al., 2013; Diab et al., 2015; Islam et al., 2017).
Over design processes or use of cheap materials make green packaging di±cult.
Green manufacturing is the most e®ective green practice on ¯rm's performance in
Bahrain. Greening manufacturing reduces time, wastes and e®orts which conse-
quently improves ¯rm's performance. (Zailani et al., 2015). The automobile industry

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is mainly focusing on manufacturing process and customers tend to purchase

products that consume less amount of energy. Shipping ¯rms are lack this process
because their main mission is to deliver and not to manufacture. Green design
becomes di±cult when ¯rms follow traditional way by using complicated design,
di±cult to recycled materials that have negative impact on environment. Surpris-
ingly, no impact was found of green design on ¯rm's performance, similar to a study
conducted in India by Mathiyazhagan and Haq (2013). The ¯nding contradicts with
studies conducted in Pakistan, Jordon and European countries which revealed a
signi¯cant impact of green design on ¯rm's performance (Khan and Qianli, 2017;
Islam et al., 2017; Tomar and Oza, 2015; Jain and Sharma, 2012; Diab et al., 2015).
Green marketing showed a positive in°uence on ¯rm's performance. This could be
attributed to good green communication between customers and ¯rms. Therefore,
green marketing in Bahrain is e®ectively in°uencing ¯rm's performance. This study
¯nding goes in line with studies conducted in Kenya India, Malaysia and Brazil
(Ghodeswar and Kumar, 2014; Afande, 2015; Osman et al., 2016; Zampese et al.,
2016). This study adds value and paves the ¯rst step for further studies that focus on
the relationship between each green practice and ¯rm's performance. Integrating
green practices in SCM with the collaboration of suppliers and customers can
develop better understanding of GSCM for performance enhancements.

6. Conclusion and Implications

Environment is the foundation of our health and without a free-pollutant environ-
ment, humanity will face many diseases and illnesses. This study was conducted in
order to measure the level of green implementation in Bahrain on two di®erent
industries. It is obvious that Bahrain is in its early stages toward achieving business
sustainability as not many ¯rms are following the new concept. The situation in
Bahrain is considered to be moderate when it comes to the green concept, a level
which needs to be improved to be able to proceed to a world's development standard.
The green practices that lead to a better performance vary in the study. Green
purchasing shows a slight positive impact with no impact of green packaging
on ¯rm's performance. This could be attributed to the use of traditional way of
purchasing, and the recycling costs. Green manufacturing shows high positive in-
°uence over the ¯rm's performance especially when it comes to the automobile
industry as it is extremely important to follow a green process in manufacturing
the vehicles. The green design was found to have a negative impact on ¯rm's per-
formance as customers request to have over design products. Green marketing
was found to have direct and positive impact over ¯rm's performance where com-
munication between ¯rms and customers is enhanced. It is concluded that green
manufacturing and green marketing are the most in°uential practices, however,
these results vary from one country to another based on society's awareness level,
¯rms' orientations and green habits. To conclude, \going green" is not an easy process
for most of the ¯rms as it requires deep examination of each operational aspect.

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S. Jassim, M. Al-Mubarak and A. Hamdan

One of the ¯rm's responsibilities is to plan and implement green standards to avoid
harmful practices of supply chain, a process which requires patience and lots of e®orts.

6.1. Managerial implications

Researchers are claiming that sustaining the SC will e±ciently support many ¯rms
specially when it comes to manufacturing. Integrating the green practices in the
SCM with the collaboration of suppliers and consumers will structure a very strong
knowledge base for the GSCM to enhance performance. Working on the improve-
ments of the SCM strategies will satisfy consumers' needs. Managers, therefore, are
asked to hold the responsibility of implementing such strategies for better perfor-
mance. If the SC is modi¯ed, then customers' demands are ful¯lled, and overall
performance is improved. Green practices can sustain the environment and form a
better ¯nancial resource. This study encourages adopting and implementing the
green concept in Bahrain. It contributes in understanding the current green situation
of Bahraini ¯rms. Firms are encouraged to focus on the most demanding practices to
better e±ciency and customer satisfaction.

6.2. Theoretical implications

The research focuses on the green practices that enhance the overall ¯rm's perfor-
mance. It shows that a speci¯c group of green practices can improve the situation
inside and outside the ¯rms. It also shows that due to cultural issues some practices
are demanded more than others. While the study con¯rms the importance of green
practices it shows the di®erences in weight which might be attributed to the back-
ground and level of maturity of the sample chosen in the country. In this regard, it
was found that the green manufacturing was the most adopted practice that shapes
the industries, followed by green marketing and green purchasing. When such green
practices are measured and implemented well, ¯rms can improve their performance
and make di®erent stakeholders happy.

6.3. Limitations and future studies

The research was conducted based on two industries in Bahrain with a relatively
small sample. It has ¯ve independent variables and one dependent variable. These
should be considered in future research where variables can be extended to include
for instance information systems, green inventory, cooperation with customers, and
reverse logistics. The focus of this study was to better understand the current level of
green practices in Bahrain's ¯rms. The sample size can be extended and to cover
more industries.

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