The current thesis is devoted to the topic of “green” supply chain practices development in Taiwan. Making a review of current researches in the Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) field we give a brief description of the main research directions, key issues and theoretical approaches, and also focus on some practical issues of GSCM implementation.

The purpose of our work is to investigate factors which influence the Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) implementation in Taiwanese manufacturing organizations.

Corresponding with the research purpose, a significant number of literature and previous works was analyzed. To conduct the research we provide a theoretical framework, set out what factors determine the choice of GSCM implementation and use the simple linear model to investigate them. For the sample we take 400 companies from the “CommonWealth” Magazine (天下) annual survey “1000 Best Manufacturing Companies of Taiwan”. The qualitative data was collected from open sources (companies’ websites, information provided for potential investors – financial reports and available sustainable reports) by the method of content analysis. Quantitative data was taken from Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) and Taiwan Stock Exchange listed companies’ databases. To analyze our model we apply ordinary least squares and binary logistic regression methods.

The results reflect that ISO 14000 adoption, export to environmentally aware markets and “green” partners existence influences the GSCM adoption in Taiwan manufacturing companies. From our sample we define positive relations between these factors and GSCM adoption.

The conclusions of our research are not contrary to the previous researches done and support that main factors of GSCM implementation for Taiwanese manufacturing companies are similar to those in other countries. However, some important differences exist.

Taiwan country specific features in GSCM implementation are the following:
? Most of GSCM adopted Taiwanese manufacturing companies in our sample are from electronic, optoelectronic and semiconductor industry; Companies from this industry are more likely to adopt GSCM and ISO 14000;
? Companies adopt “green” practices mainly because of foreign customers and international environmental regulations pressure;
? Size of the companies defined in number of employees doesn’t influence the GSCM adoption;

We hope that our findings can be interesting to anyone working on sustainability and green performance issues. However, the results of this study suggest a broader hypothesis for our further research in the GSCM field.

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3
ABSTRACT 4
LIST OF TABLES 8
LIST OF FIGURES 8

1. INTRODUCTION 9
1.1. Research Background 9
1.2. Research Purpose 10
1.3. Terms and Definitions 10
1.4. Thesis Structure 12

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 13
2.1. Green Supply Chain Design and Approach. 14
2.2. Logistics Models and Green Supply Chain in Logistics Management. 15
2.3. GSCM in Life-Cycle Analysis Researches. 15
2.4. GSCM Implementation Influence on a Firm Level. 15
2.5. Performance Measurement Models. 16
2.6. Supplier Selection Modeling. 16
2.7. Green Labels and Sustainability Reporting. 17
2.8. Social Responsibility and Collaboration Issues. 17
2.9. Modernization and Innovations. 17
2.10. GSCM Researches in Taiwan 18
2.11. Research Problem Formulation 19

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 20
3.1. GSCM Practice: Factors and Barriers of Implementing 20
3.1.1. External incentives and pressures 20
3.1.2. Internal factors 21
3.1.3. Factors that determine successful GSCM implementation 23
3.2. Hypotheses Development 23

4. METHOD AND APPROACH 26
4.1. Model and Variables 26
4.2. Data Collection 26
4.3. Sample Analysis 26
4.4. Methodology 29

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 32
5.1. Hypothesis Testing 32
5.2. Type of Industry 34

6. CONCLUSION 36
7. LIMITATIONS AND FURTHER RESEARCH SUGGESTIONS 38
REFERENCES 39
APPENDIX 44

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