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Mitigating External Barriers to Implementing Green Supply Chain Management: A Grounded Theory Investigation of Green‐Tech Companies' Rare Earth Metals Supply Chains
Author(s) -
Rauer Johan,
Kaufmann Lutz
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of supply chain management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.75
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1745-493X
pISSN - 1523-2409
DOI - 10.1111/jscm.12063
Subject(s) - dynamic capabilities , supply chain , business , supply chain management , grounded theory , salient , process management , industrial organization , knowledge management , marketing , qualitative research , computer science , social science , artificial intelligence , sociology
The supply chain management literature has investigated myriad barriers to implementing green supply chain management ( GSCM ). However, little research has analyzed the role of capabilities to mitigate such barriers, a research gap we address in this study using an inductive research approach. Following a Straussian approach to grounded theory, the study analyzes data generated from ten Western green‐tech companies sourcing technically indispensable rare earth metals from Chinese suppliers. Our interpretive research findings show that these companies face two categories of salient, external barriers to GSCM –supply chain structure‐related and environmental standards‐related implementation barriers. To cope with these barriers, we argue that firms require three categories of dynamic capabilities: sensing capabilities, alignment capabilities, and resilience capabilities. By connecting our research findings with the dynamic capabilities literature, we derive theoretical propositions to guide further research on studying the role of dynamic capabilities in the implementation of GSCM .