Introduktion- Den miljömässiga varianten av Supply chain management, även kallad Green supply chain management, har som mål att minimera eller eliminera negativ miljöpåverkan. Onödiga transporter innebär negativ miljöpåverkan. Trots transporters påverkan på miljön, finns lite forskning om samband mellan transporter och Green supply chain management. Syftet med studien är därför att utforma en strategi för att uppnå Green supply chain management och minska på onödiga transporter med fokus på osäkerhet, variation och transparens.   Metod- För att möjliggöra ett besvarande av syfte har en fallstudie bedrivits med hjälp av litteratur och ett fallföretag.   Resultat, analys, diskussion och slutsats - Fallföretaget påverkas negativt av osäkerhet, variation och har även brist på transparens i försörjningskedjan. Onödiga transporter genom återkallningar skapas på grund av kvalitetsbristerskapar hinder för en effektiv supply chain management strategi. Ett systematiskt tillvägagångssätt genom PDCA kan hjälpa fallföretaget att skapa en stabil grund och uppnå Green supply chain management. Det är viktigt att Plan-Do-Check-Act bedrivs med god kommunikation för att skapa transparens, hindra osäkerhet och variation. Green supply chain management kan uppnås genom en kombination av ISO 9001, ISO 14001 och Lean. Dessa delar ska bedrivas med Plan-Do-Check-Act för att minska på onödiga transporter. / Introduction- The environmental variant of Supply Chain Management, also known as the Green supply chain management, aims to minimize or eliminate negative environmental impacts.  Unnecessary transports are a negative environmental aspect and means negative environmental impact. Although transports affect the environment, there is little research on the relationship between transport and Green supply chain management. The purpose of the study is therefore to design a strategy for achieving Green supply chain management and reduce unnecessary transport with a focus on uncertainty, variability and transparency. Method- To enable the answering of purpose, a case study conducted with the help of literature and a case company. Results- The case company is negatively affected by uncertainty, variety, and also by a lack of transparency in the supply chain. Unnecessary transportations through recalls are created because of quality defects. This creates obstacles for a supply chain management strategy to be more effective. A systematic approach by Plan-Do-Check-Act can help the case company to create a stable basis and achieve green supply chain management. It is necessary to conduct Plan-Do-Check-Act with good communication in order to create transparency, prevent uncertainty and variation. Green supply chain management can be achieved through a combination of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and Lean. These parts should be conducted with PDCA, which can reduce unnecessary transportation.

The aim of this study was to determine a Green approach towards systems development methodologies and to investigate influences that affect the adoption of Green Information Technologies and Green Information Systems in South Africa. A literature review was done in order to determine which empirical is required to achieve the research objectives. The positivistic paradigm was found to be the most suited paradigm for this study. A survey was used as the research method and conducted in South Africa. The data was collected using a questionnaire, after determining that it was the most suited data collection method. The questionnaire was validated using structural equation modelling in order to determine if the data that was collected is valid. The valid data was then evaluated using different statistical methods, such as correlations, t-test, ANOVA tests and Cross-Tabs. The study revealed that the different characteristics of organisations can influence different aspects, such factors that inhibit or motivate the adoption of Green IT and Green IS. Interestingly, characteristics of individuals had no impact. It was also revealed that organisational culture and national culture had an impact on factors that motivate the adoption of Green IT initiatives. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

D. Tech. (Marketing, Department of Marketing and Sport Management, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology / The concept of green marketing has gained prominence in academia in recent years with concomitant implications for marketing strategy. The considerable attention accorded to green marketing is accentuated by concerns about global climate change and its threat to the sustainability of livelihoods. As the debate on green marketing continues to unfold, there are important issues yet to be addressed, one of which relates to the antecedents of green consumer buyer behaviour and selection attributes of green products. In view of the growing importance of green consumer buyer behaviour in contemporary markets, the purpose of the present study was to examine empirically the antecedents of green consumer buyer behaviour and the selection attributes of Generation Y consumers. The Generation Y cohort was considered as the ideal target population for the present study owing to its size, bespeaking a profitable market segment with the potential to provide a “snap-shot” of future pro-environmental behavioural intentions. The theories of Reasoned Action and Consumption Values provided the theoretical lens through which to examine and delineate the antecedents of green consumer buyer behaviour and the selection attributes of Generation Y consumers in the context of a developing country such as South Africa. The present study adopted a sequential mixed-methods methodology that commenced with a qualitative study and was followed by a quantitative study. For the qualitative study, data were collected from a purposively selected Generation Y student sample comprising sixteen participants. The principle of technical saturation was employed to ascertain the adequacy of the sample size. The credibility and trustworthiness of the qualitative study were achieved through pretesting of the interview guide, bracketing, prolonged ngagement with participants, member checks, peer de-briefing, an audit trail of the interviewing process and researcher reflexivity. The analysis of the qualitative data was conducted through the use of content and thematic analyses. The qualitative study identified environmental attitude, environmental concern, social influence, environmental responsibility, government influence, selection attributes and green purchase intention as the main determinants of green purchase behaviour. The qualitative study also revealed that the demand for green products is thwarted by marketing-related barriers such as high prices, misleading green marketing messages and unavailability of products. In line with the methodology of the study, the determinants of green purchase behaviour that emerged from the qualitative study were further examined through a quantitative study. The data for the quantitative study were generated from a conveniently selected Generation Y student sample of 386 respondents, using a structured selfadministered questionnaire. The historical evidence method and the pre-conditions of multivariate data analysis (confirmatory factor analysis) guided the determination of the sample size for the quantitative study. The statistical data analysis procedures utilised for the quantitative study were descriptive statistics, reliability and validity analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. Prior to questionnaire administration, a pilot study was conducted to improve the accuracy of the survey instrument. The collected quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) 22.0. The preliminary data analysis involved the process of coding and checking the distribution of scores. The results of the normality test revealed that the data were not normally distributed. Thus, non-parametric statistics were employed for correlation analysis and for testing gender difference in green consumer buyer behaviour. The Mann-Whitney U Test and the Kruskal-Wallis Test revealed that Generation Y female consumers are more apt to engage in pro-environmental behaviours than their male counterpartsIn order to verify the reliability of the measurement items, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the item-to-total values and composite reliability were computed. In addition, the validity of the survey instrument was enhanced through content, convergent, discriminant and predictive validities. The reliability and validity measures employed in the present study attested that the survey instrument utilised in the quantitative study was both reliable and valid. The results of correlation analysis indicated that environmental concern, environmental attitude, environmental responsibility, government influence, social influence and selection attributes have a positive association with green purchase intention. The correlation analysis also revealed a weak association between green purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour. Prior to testing the hypothesised relationships, the fitness of the measurement and structural models was assessed. The model fit indices that included the chi-square value over degree of freedom ( 2/df), Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Incremental Fit Index (IFI) andTucker-Lewis Index (TLI) yielded satisfactory results that are consistent with acceptable thresholds, demonstrating that the measurement and structural model fitted well with the data. The posited relationships were tested using structural equation modelling. The hypotheses testing results revealed that green purchase intention was significantly and positively influenced by environmental attitude, environmental concern, social influence, environmental responsibility and selection attributes, but not by government influence. The results also showed that the relationship between green purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour was moderated by selection attributes. The findings of the study imply that marketers need to formulate and implement green marketing strategies that enhance environmental attitudes and concerns, initiate programmes that foster environmental responsibility, understand the selection attributes of Generation Y consumers and utilise social networks to stimulate pro-environmental behaviours. The results also suggest that the South African government needs to re-invigorate its environmental initiatives to foster green purchase intention and the purchase of green products. Finally, the study also provided evidence that suggests an insignificant relationship between green purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour. This result suggests an urgent need by marketers to understand the underlying factors causing the gap between green purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour. To effectively promote green consumer buyer behaviour, marketers need to understand the determinants of green purchase intention and craft effective strategies to translate green purchase intentions into actual purchasing behaviour. The findings of the present study provide avenues for further study in a discipline that is increasingly gaining theoretical and practical prominence. Future research efforts should consider the use of an integrated research model that encompasses more variables, utilising a broader sample frame and employing a longitudinal study in order to enhance the generalisability of the research findings. Overall, the study offers valuable insights for stimulating green purchase behaviour among the potentially profitable Generation Y cohort and equips marketers with green marketing strategies to position green products competitively in the marketplace.

Abstract Problem: Food consumption represents the largest contributor to climate change in Sweden, with activities that contribute to excess waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Although studies indicate positive attitudes towards green purchasing behavior among young Swedish consumers, inconsistency between green purchasing intent and actual behavior have been noticed.   Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative research paper was to understand and identify underlying enablers and inhibitor to green purchasing behavior amongst young Swedish adults. Furthermore, the authors sought to understand the inconsistency between purchasing intent and actual purchasing behavior, of young Swedish consumers.   Method: To answer the research question a qualitative research was conducted with a deductive approach. Focus groups with semi-open interview questions were used to collect empirical data. The target group for this research were young Swedish adults between the ages of 20-26.   Conclusion: This research identified knowledge as the main inhibitor and enhancer of green purchasing behavior, as well as other factors that can be traced back to the amount and accessibility of knowledge. It was also concluded that companies have failed in delivering their green marketing strategies, as young consumers display confusion and mistrust towards green products.

Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis is to examine factors influencing green consumption and to explain the moderating effect of market maturity on these factors in developed and emerging markets.Design/methodology/approach – In this research the pragmatism epistemology was employed as the scientific perspective of the current research. Deductive reasoning has been selected as scientific approach. The formulation of hypotheses, the collection and analysis of the data were based on and derived from existing theories. In line with deductive approach the collected data was analyzed quantitatively within cross-sectional time horizon. SSPS program was applied to process the collected research data and present the research results. The data was collected via online survey (Google Forms) in Russia and Sweden as well as credible and reliable secondary resources.Findings – Based on correlation and multiple regression analysis it was found that factor perceived consumer effectiveness positively (Beta=0.227) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) influences green consumption among young people in Sweden. Price is determined to affect negatively (Beta=-0.279) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) green consumption among young people in Sweden. Perceived consumer effectiveness positively (Beta=0.225) and significantly (Sig.<0.05) influences green consumption among young people in Russia. The presence of moderating effect of market maturity was not revealed within the conducted research. That means the level of development of countries (in case of Sweden and Russia) does not make a significant influence on the association between studied factors and green consumption among young people. Perceived consumer effectiveness is determined to be the main driving factor which pushes the younger generation toward sustainable consumption both in Sweden and Russia.Research limitations – the first limitation relates to the size of the sample. Although the sample of 100 respondents for each country (Sweden and Russia) was considered adequate, still a larger sample size could have provided more heterogonous findings and might have led to a different conclusion. Another limitation considers geographical and industrial boundaries. The research applies the theoretical model to the context of only two particular countries, namely, Sweden and Russia by focusing on consumption of green products from FMCG industry. With this regard, the findings of the study might not be fully suitable for other emerging and developed countries or other industries. Also, the application of non-probability sampling limited the authors to add more validity to the research. The last limitation is such a phenomena as socially desirable responding or response biases that means a tendency to choose the desirable response or the most moderate response.Practical implications – The findings ensure a better understanding of the content of moderating effect of market maturity and explain more in details how particular factors influence green consumption in emerging and developed markets. The model conceptualized by the authors is supposed to be a good basis for future researches aimed at examining moderating effect of market maturity on relationship between green consumption and factors influencing it in other emerging and developed markets besidesRussia and Sweden. In practice a special emphasis on perceived consumer effectiveness by the companies which market green products and target young consumers could helpthem to supply their products more successfully both in developed and/or emerging countries. Particularly, they need create a perception among potential consumers that buying green products contributes to sustainability and solution of environmental problems by elaborating particular strategies. As the research revealed a negative and significant relation between price and green consumption on the developed market it is important that managers consider price policy while marketing green products among young generation in developed countries.

Sustainability has been heightened to a new level of importance, due to the current global race for commodities and conservation of our environment. Sustainable Buildings are of particular interest since buildings are significant contributors to consumption of resources. Since the inception of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1993, USGBC has played a key role in providing guidance to the design and construction community in building“green" structures. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system is an industry accepted standard for the design/construction and measurement of green buildings. Although USGBC provides guidance on performance measurement, a streamlined process of performance tracking and measurement has not been formalized. This research focuses on identifying vital areas of required tracking and measurement; to allow for a systematic analysis of costs and benefits, over the life of sustainable buildings. A case-study based on the recently designed and constructed East Hall LEED-Gold Certified, dormitory building at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), was undertaken to create and assess a life cycle costs analysis framework. This research is aimed at understanding what the costs of building green at WPI truly are. Life Cycle Cost Analyses of the mechanical, electrical, plumbing and roof components were evaluated to generate percent savings or percent added cost. This research reviewed the various green and non-green costs of construction, consumption, and operations and maintenance costs providing a comparative analysis to leading researchers in the field of costs and benefits of building green.

After a growth in sales of 30% from 2007 to 2010, green product market sales declined 2% from 2010 to 2014 in the United States. Business leaders need to incorporate sustainable business practices and use green messaging within advertisements and marketing campaigns to assure that present needs do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This qualitative case study explored marketing strategies that business leaders in the green advertising industry use to increase the sale of green products. The social cognitive theory was the conceptual framework used in this study. In-depth interviews with 5 purposively selected business leaders with experience in advertising green products were supplemented with a review of documentation. Yin's 5-step analysis guided the coding process of participants' responses, and member checking was used to validate the transcribed data. The major themes of the study revealed strategies used in green advertising. The themes that emerged from the research include usage of social media, understanding behaviors of green consumers, and expectations of the emerging millennial generation. The implication for positive social change is the potential for increased environmental awareness that could positively affect the environment and improve effectiveness for companies that sell green products.

Despite the widely acknowledged contention that pollution control measures would be less beneficial than pollution prevention technologies in the long run, pollution control approaches remain a popular solution for organizations seeking, or coerced, to engage in corporate environmentalism. Drawing on the conceptual underpinnings of the Theory of Planned Behaviour as an integrative framework, this study combines the tenets of five major management theories - institutional, stakeholder, planned behaviour, resource-based view, and life-cycle management - to examine how and why small and medium sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) embrace dissimilar approaches to implementing green initiatives under different circumstances. This research adopted a nested, multiple-case design to explore why some organizations have been able to obtain beneficial effects from their green initiative implementation while others have not. The findings, based on the experiences of s even SMMEs, which implemented a total of 27 green initiatives in their production operations, reveal that legislative requirements, stakeholders' expectations, organizations' natural environmental orientation, as well as their environmental resource base and capabilities, jointly drive corporate environmental strategies. The case study found that the higher the external pressures, a combination of legislative requirements and stakeholder expectations, the more likely it was for SMMEs to adopt quick-fix, off-the-shelve solutions, which typically carried limited short-term benefits with associated high long-term costs. By contrast, less intense external pressures offer firms the opportunities to explore plausible options and exploit internal resource capabilities to advantage, giving rise to the adoption of more sustainable approaches. The study further discovers that experiential learning, i.e., a firm's ability to learn from its green initiative implementation experience, separates SMMEs capable of capital izing on the values of their implemented green initiatives to gain competitive advantages and redefine competition from those that are immersed in a cognitive lock-in, unable to free themselves from an unproductive green wall. The findings suggest that nurturing organizational learning among environmentally resistive firms could transform them into environmentally responsible enterprises. The study concludes by interpreting its findings into a number of theoretical propositions for theory building in corporate environmental management.

There is a growing need to better understand environmental decision making in the context of climate change and limited renewable resources. This dissertation deepens our understanding of such decision making by focusing on strategic green decisions, which can be defined as the individual and collaborative green decisions within or between organizations that help organizations improve their operating position, adapt to changes in their external institutional environments, and simultaneously generate environmental benefits. The particular focus is on decisions related to energy in the North American context. The research draws on and contributes to organizational theory with the aim of better understanding those factors that motivate and/or facilitate green decisions by organizations, especially social economy organizations—an area of only limited research to date. Two complementary empirical studies address the overarching research goal. The first study focuses on understanding the nature and extent of the association between organizational attributes and those factors that motivate and/or facilitate a green energy decision. Insights are based on a bi-national survey of 212 organizations that voluntarily began to purchase green electricity between 1999 and 2008. Findings indicate that important influences are similar across organizational types. Survey results highlight the importance of organizational culture and internal champions—both individually and in combination—in making the initial decision to purchase green electricity, despite its relatively higher price. These two factors, as well as strategic benefits, emerge as the dominant explanations for why organizations expand their green energy purchases. The relative importance and particular roles of these factors vary across organizational and decision types. The second empirical study extends our understanding of how organizations adapt to external changes while maintaining the capacity to innovate in order to address their core objectives. The focus is on the residential energy services market, and is based on 12 interviews with the executive directors of non-profit environmental service organizations (ESOs) that are part of a national network called Green Communities Canada. These organizations survived a funding shock by creating new services and diversifying funding sources with actions that collectively can be referred to as ‘green collaborative entrepreneurship’; collaborative because it was facilitated by strategic partnerships with businesses and local governments, as well as the cross-national social capital network connecting the ESOs. The important motivating factors of green collaborative entrepreneurship were the green values and objectives that drive these organizations. The facilitating factors of green collaborative entrepreneurship included human capital, social capital and strategic partnerships, which acted as dynamic capabilities because of their flexibility to help increase the level of entrepreneurship when necessary for organizational survival, and yet, scale-up and deliver core programs during stable funding periods. The dissertation provides important insights into broad questions related to green decisions, especially for organizations that are affected by political policy cycles. The findings highlight that organizations are able to be more environmentally sustainable while also improving their own strategic performance by making green decisions that either provide the capacity to adapt to exogenous change for survival, or to create endogenous change for competitive advantage. The research contributes to our understanding of societal transitions to sustainable development by highlighting two green decisions that are occurring in the social economy. The dissertation contributes to organizational theory and in particular the traditional corporate literature by including multiple organizational types. Sustainability researchers should focus on green decisions that both enhance organizational stability and ecological sustainability if they wish to better understand creative green solutions from organizations.

Thèse de doctorat : Littérature française : Rennes 2 : 2007. / Bibliogr. f. 270-276.