Green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Brazil: survey, case studies, and implications for B2B

This article examines whether or not customers cooperate on organisations’ environmental performance, in what circumstances it happens; and how customers can collaborate with organisations in order to they improve their environmental performance. This research uses both Ecological Modernisation (EM) and the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) to analyse the effects of external Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices, namely, ‘Cooperation with Customers’ (CC) and ‘Green Purchasing’ (GP) on the Environmental Performance (EP) of organisations. A multi-method model of research is used, combining a survey and multiple-case studies of Brazilian organisations. The main results and contributions of this research include: (a) the Brazilian setting, in the context of EM, which provides incentives for adopting GSCM practices, especially CC practices; (b) Brazilian
organisations depend more on customers than on suppliers to improve EP; and (c) a matrix for a better understanding of the roles of suppliers and customers to achieve a better EP through a GSCM approach is proposed. This paper provides an extension to the EM and RDT theories applied to green operations management by showing that external GSCM can improve EP and that such a
process depends more on CC than GP. Implications for B2B are highlighted.