Corporate environmental management is ever-changing. In its early days firms' environmental activities are focused on the treatment of wastes produced in the production process. As environmental regulations get more comprehensive and stringent, businesses have to shift their environmental efforts from process emission control to product life cycle management. With the shift of the focus, corporate environmental management is now reorganized along the product life cycle and the value chain.
Products' environmental impacts are not wholly determined in the final manufacturers' operation. Set makers now have to keep track of the parts they use in the process. This change leads the extension of corporate environmental management perspective. Now manufacturers are beginning to include the environmental performance dimensions in their supply chain management (SCM) activities. The extended management efforts for the environmental responsibility are now conceptualized as supply chain environmental management (SCEM), which covers the environmental performances of both the upstream and downstream partners.
The research in SCEM area is in its early stage, and the few existing literature only covers SCEM motivations, supporting systems, and some financial and environmental performances. In order to complement the literature of SCEM, we introduce the buyer-supplier relationship and SCEM typology using the existing models from vast SCM literature. We suggest new variables to measure the attributes of SCEM activities. A firm's SCEM activities can be measured by 1) how much of their suppliers are included in the program (width), 2) how advanced the environmental management efforts are in the SCEM activities (depth), and 3) how far along the chain the SCEM covers the partners (length). Using the three dimensional measurement, we introduce eight possible combinations of SCEM attributes (high and low in each dimension).
We propose a research model explaining the relationships between the buyer-supplier variables and the SCEM types, and their impacts to the SCEM performance. Both the buying firm and the suppliers have characteristics that affect the SCEM type they choose. The buyer-supplier variables include the motivation for the environmental issues, organizational capability and culture, and the parts attributes they trade. The SCEM type of the buyer affects the SCEM performances. We suggest that SCEM performances can be measured by SCEM project completion time, quality and cost.
The proposed research model was examined by case studies. Six manufacturing business units from automotive and electronics industries were selected as subjects of the study. We conclude that SCEM motivations affect SCEM types and SCEM types in turn explain the SCEM performances as well. We close the thesis by generating hypotheses to be tested by future field surveys.
환경규제가 강화됨에 따라 기업의 환경경영이 생산현장 관리에서 제품의 전과정을 관리하는 방향으로 변하고 있다. 이와 같이 공급사슬상의 전체 참여자의 환경성과를 관리하는 개념이 친환경 공급사슬 관리(SCEM)이다. 본 연구에서는 SCEM의 유형을 폭, 깊이, 길이라는 변수를 정의하여 구분하고 이를 SCEM의 동인 및 성과와 연관하여 이들 변수간 상관관계를 규명하고자 하였다. SCEM의 동인을 다시 구매기업 특성과 공급업체 특성으로 나누어 소개하였고 성과는 환경관련 프로젝트의 완료 시간, 질적 수준, 비용으로 평가하였다. 이론을 토대로 완성한 연구모형을 국내 여섯 개 사업단위를 대상으로 실시한 사례연구로 확인함으로써 연구모형을 검증하였다.
