A review of green supply chain management: From bibliometric analysis to a conceptual framework and future research directions

Abstract This study reviews the green supply chain management (GSCM) literature and proposes a comprehensive view of the structural associations amongst the GSCM factors, viz. drivers, practice indicators and performance measures. The HistCite software was used to perform bibliometric citation meta-analysis on a sample of 1523 articles, obtained from the ISI Web of Science database. Influential journals, institutions, and trending articles in the GSCM research are revealed. Co-citation analysis coupled with content analysis of the 39 most cited articles identified six underlying research streams, namely (a) conceptual development and sense-making, (b) GSCM impact on performance, (c) integration of green and sustainable operations in the supply chain, (d) green supplier development, (e) GSCM implementation drivers, and (f) review and future research directions. This further led to proposing a comprehensive conceptual framework with logically grouped factors, and directing relationships among the groups. Finally, future research directions claimed by the trending articles in the field were aligned with the findings of the key papers, and an approach to perform non-myopic GSCM research in the future is suggested.

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