THE INFLUENCE OF GREEN PROCUREMENT ON CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION QUALITY AND REVERSE SUPPLY CHAIN AMONG MANUFACTURING SMES IN GAUTENG PROVINCE

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 10 Sayı: 1, 1 - 15, 01.01.2018

Elizabeth Chinomona Osayuwamen Omoruyi

Öz

The ultimate reason for the need and importance of green procurement is to
establish and develop an environmental management system for both
environmental benefits and profit maximisation. Green procurement is about
reducing waste and finding strategic means of being more efficient to reduce costs.
This process of becoming more efficient can impact positively on an organisation’s
customer relationship management, improve information quality and possibly
reduce the rate of product returns. This is possible because, as the need for
environmental sustainability increases, organisations that implement sustainable
solutions are becoming more competitive and stand a better chance of higher levels
of business growth. The research gap is that more organisations are going green in
order to enhance their relationship with customers and their corporate reputation.
In other words, as competition among organisations becomes more strategic,
manufacturing SMEs that refuse to integrate a sustainable green procurement
strategy or practice into their business operation might suffer, as customers would
only buy from organisations that offer sustainable options. Because sustainable
procurement involves collaborative relationships among all parties within a supply
chain, developmental tools and techniques have been put in place and, as such,
organisations are able to effectively manage and optimise customer relationship
management, influence information quality to customers and enhance their reverse
supply chain strategy. Green procurement strategies enable organisations to look
out for materials, parts, products and production equipment based on price,
environmental impact, quality as well as forward and reverse delivery solutions.
The purpose of this study, therefore, is to determine the influence of green
procurement on customer relationship management, information quality and reverse supply chain among manufacturing SMEs in Gauteng province. The
reliability and validity of the measuring instrument will be tested using the
measurement model assessment. This will be achieved through confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA). SEM will be used to test the model fit and hypotheses by using
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software and Analysis of
Moment Structures (AMOS) version 24.0 to assess the measurement and the
structural models. Finally, managerial implications of the findings are discussed
and limitations and future research directions are indicated.

Anahtar Kelimeler

customer management, information quality, reverse supply chain, green procurement, social exchange theory.