The role of risk in environment‐related supplier initiatives

Abstract

This paper extends previous literature on the greening of supply chains by giving explicit consideration to two main areas – the role of risk, and the motives for undertaking different sorts of environment-related supplier initiatives. A model is presented which describes the extent and type of environment-related supplier initiatives that may be undertaken by firms as a result of the interaction of the perceived losses to the firm associated with inaction, and the actual level of strategic purchasing in the firm.