ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF A FRAMEWORK FOR GREEN INNOVATION IMPLEMENTATION IN SMEs

Abstract

Globalization has produced remarkable changes in business structures and organizations across the world. The businesses are expanding at a rapid pace due to globalization and industrialization. With exponential expansion in business, the waste and pollution generated due to this expansion have also increased rapidly causing deterioration of the environment. Compelled by deteriorating environmental condition due to rapid industrialization and market pressures, environmentalists, industrialists as well as academicians are concerned about incorporating green practices into the manufacturing processes. Further, SMEs being the backbone of any economy is the major contributor in terms of manufacturing output and also contribute significantly towards the environmental degradation. But SMEs being resource constrained are unable to mitigate the harmful impact of their production processes on the environment. Consequently, to address the rising environmental concern, government and other stakeholders need to come up with innovative ways to reduce environmental degradation. Thus keeping this in mind this study aims to analyze and develop a model for green innovation adoption and implementation in SMEs so that SMEs can effectively manage environmental concerns. This research work has five objectives and the whole thesis is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter is an introduction and presents the basic background and the need for the study. It highlights the importance of SMEs in economic growth of the country and also in the innovation process. The second chapter deals with literature review and it provides an in-depth and exhaustive review of the literature on green innovation. Detailed definitions of green innovation and types of green innovation are also discussed. An extensive review of the literature on enablers and barriers to green innovation in SMEs is also presented in this chapter. Third chapter presents the research approach followed. It discusses about various methodologies adopted and their brief description. Fourth chapter is aimed to assess the current situation of green innovation SMEs in selected SMEs. PPS and TPS approach is used to assess the current situation of green innovation in SMEs and results indicate that the level of green adoption is poor in Indian SMEs. Fifth chapter deals with the development of a framework to identify barriers of green innovation and also solutions to overcome these barriers. A total of seven main category barriers and thirty six sub category barriers are identified, along with twenty solutions to overcome these barriers. II Technological and resource related barriers emerged as the most important barriers followed with financial and economic barriers and market and customer related barriers. Sixth chapter deals with identifying enablers of green innovation in SMEs and supplier selection among SMEs on the basis of these enablers. Forty two enablers are identified and supplier selection using case of seven SMEs is done on the basis of these enablers. Seventh chapter deals with the development of a conceptual framework for green innovation adoption and implementation in SMEs. Mixed method research is adopted for this purpose. The results have indicated that a ‘green competency building based approach’ is the key strategy to solve the present research problem. ‘Green technology and research based approach’ and ‘green networking based approach’ have occupied the second and third positions respectively. This framework can act as a benchmark for other SMEs to adopt green innovation for better environmental management.