Willingness to Accept Green Practices by Manufacturing SMEs in India

Introduction

Customer value creation and superior financial performance are the most important aspects for companies to survive in this competitive environment (Woodruff, 1997; Lindman et al., 2016). In recent decades the Business has taken a strain through scarcity of resources leading to reduced cost competitiveness (Feger, 2014). This has led to firms seeking opportunities to develop business models based on circular economy principles inspired by green practices for sustainable development (Bag et al., 2019). Green initiatives refer to the processes adopted by the organizations for minimum harm to the environment. This means turning to practices that are environmentally friendly. Some short-run cost-effective benefits are improved health, reusable products, and recycling (Yacob et al., 2019). Green manufacturing practices also support the organizations in the form of better resources utilization leading to cost reduction it helps in superior brand building leading to demand expansion and price premium advantages (Amui et al., 2017).

Entrepreneurs and companies understand this shifting trend and now willingly accept green practices in order to show their responsibility towards the environment (Chen and Chai, 2010; Maak, 2008). and this now emerging as a sustainable model of business also. This is an emerging field where research is still in its infancy. Green production and sustainability have a growth potential; these approaches have produced a wide scope of opportunities for entrepreneurs at the intersection of environment, social and economic objectives, known as green or eco entrepreneurs (Nacu and Avasilcai, 2014; Gibbs and O'Neill, 2014). Some of the world’s emerging economies have not realized the full advantage of sustainable green practices, despite many industrial perspectives which posit that the adoption and implementation of sustainable green practices are relatively straightforward (Nallusamy et al., 2015).

India is one of the fastest-growing economies and one of the most important foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations in the world. In the last half-decade, economic growth has gradually accelerated and remained, most critically, very stable (Nulkar, 2014). This trend was driven by strong government socioeconomic policies, an influx of domestic and foreign capital, and an increase in supply and demand among many other positive features (Assari, 2019). The key factor also known as the backbone of the Indian economy is the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector (Dhillon et al., 2016). Overall, SMEs account for the largest share of established enterprises in most countries (Nikolic et al., 2019). On the other hand, environmental concerns (ECs) are increasing (Bonney and Jaber, 2011) and green policies have become overwhelming and been heard in boardrooms and business meetings frequently (Abdul et al., 2019). There are issues raised such as how greenhouse gasses are treated, soil toxicity reduced, and used resources and residual products deposited in waste and left to degrade waste (Del Brìo et al., 2003). Sustainable green manufacturing processes are not harmful to the environment (Hassan et al., 2011).