Green supply chain management (GSCM): a structured literature review and research implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of green supply chain management (GSCM) research in terms of how the field is represented along a number of dimensions including journal, year, country, university, publishing house, authors, research design, research methods, data analysis techniques, multi criteria decision-making methods, research topics/issues and major industries actively involved. Design/methodology/approach – A range of online databases from 1998 to August 2013 were searched containing the word “green supply chain” in their title and in the phrases to provide a comprehensive listing of journal articles on GSCM. Based on this a total of 177 articles were found and the information on a series of variables was gathered. Each of these articles was further reviewed and classified. The review and classification process was independently verified. All papers were allocated to the main and sub-categories based on the major focus. Findings – The major findings shows that survey research holds greater credibility and the trend in survey research is moving from exploratory to model building and testing. GSCM research related to organizational practices, environmental issues, process, performance and sustainability were found to be most widely published topics within the GSCM domain. Research limitations/implications – This paper is limited in reviewing those articles which contains the word “green supply chain” in the title and the phrases of the articles. Originality/value – The present review will provide increased understanding of the current state of research and what still needs to be investigated in the GSCM discipline.