Analyzing critical success factors for sustainable green supply chain management

Green supply chain management (GSCM) plays the primary and a very important role for attaining the mission of sustainable development. Sustainability through GSCM is an evolving practice generic from the synthesis of two pertinent contemporary regenerative strategies. They are economic development and environmental protection. Accordingly, the concept of Sustainable Green Supply Chain Management (SGSCM) can be well understood as a corporate strategy for enhancing productivity and eco-efficiency. This paper aims to analyse the critical success factors (CSFs) for effective adoption of SGSCM practices in the Indian brass manufacturing industry-an important sector of the economy. Nine CSFs were selected from an extensive literature search that is validated through an exploratory survey of a sample of 189 management professionals. The analyses have been carried out by applications of AHP, TOPSIS and DEMATEL methods. This research showed general agreement with the existing literature on the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of SGSCM. However, although leadership is frequently mentioned in the literature, no guidance could be found on prioritization of success factors. It is established that top management commitment is the most important critical success factor, and reverse logistics management happens to be the most important cause for the effective adoption of SGSCM practices.