1.0 Introduction
Economic development improves people's living standards and promotes social progress, at the same time, it brings more and more environmental pollution, including waste gas, waste water emissions, climate warming, extreme weather, excessive consumption of resources and so on (Zhang et al.,2017). Environmental pollution not only affects the survival of mankind, but also poses a threat to the development prospects of enterprises (Weichhart et al., 2016). In this context, the theory and practice of sustainable development of enterprises are paid more and more attention (Roy and Khastagir, 2016). From the perspective of environmental protection, sustainable development refers to that in the pursuit of economic interests, at the same time, enterprises are concerned about environmental protection to achieve enterprise development and harmonious coexistence with the human society, the natural environment (Dvořáková and Zborková, 2014).
Green management is an important means for enterprises to achieve sustainable development (Geng, Mansouri and Aktas, 2017). Green management is to integrate the concept of environmental protection into business management, which involves all levels, various fields, all aspects, all processes of business management, requiring that in business management, it should consider environmental protection at any time (Ma et al., 2016).
2.0 Rationale
There are many literatures on green management and sustainable development of enterprises. However, these studies have elaborated the importance of green management to the sustainable development of enterprises from a certain point of view (Mustapha, Manan, Alwi, 2017). There are not lots of researches which systematically expound the roles that green management plays in enterprises’ sustainable development strategy, and to what extent it is important. In this study, it will take literatures relating to green management and sustainable development as the research objects, according to content analysis to carry out quantitative and qualitative analysis on the literatures, and finally based on the results of the content analysis to systematically describe the roles that green management plays in enterprises’ sustainable development strategy.
3.0 Research aim and objectives
The research aim of this study is to systematically expound the roles of green management in the sustainable development strategy of enterprises. According to the research aim of this study and Scur and Barbosa’s (2017), Vanallea’s et al., (2017) research, the research objectives of this are designed as follows.
Research objective 1: to discuss the roles of green management in the sustainable development of enterprises from the perspective of corporate decision-making
Research objective 2: to discuss the roles of green management in the sustainable development of enterprises from the perspective of production processes
Research objective 3: to discuss the roles of green management in the sustainable development of enterprises from a product perspective
Research objective 4: to discuss the roles of green management in the sustainable development of enterprises from the perspective of production waste utilization
Research objective 5: to discuss the roles of green management in the sustainable development of enterprises from the perspective of corporate image
4.0 Literature review
4.1 Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a new concept put forward by people in the 1980s with the extensive discussion of global environmental and development issues (Zhang et al., 2017). It is a long-term and profound reflection on the traditional development mode (Weichhart et al., 2016). The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 took sustainable development as a common development strategy for mankind towards the twenty-first century and, for the first time in human history, the concept of sustainable development strategies was implemented (Dvořáková and Zborková, 2014). In 1987, Barbier et al. published a series of articles on economic and environmental sustainability, which attracted the attention of the international community (Zhang et al., 2017). In the same year, Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland formally presented the concept of sustainable development in the "Our Common Future" of the World Commission on Environment and Development, marking the emergence of sustainable development theory (Weichhart et al., 2016). The research focus of sustainable development of enterprises is how to adapt and meet the carrying capacity of ecological environment while realizing the coordinated development of enterprises, environment, ecology and resources while pursuing economic growth.
4.2 Green management
There are many literatures on green management and sustainable development of enterprises. These studies have elaborated the importance of green management to sustainable development of enterprises from different angles. Vanallea et al (2017) were from the perspective of corporate decision-making to point out that green management should be included in an enterprise’s environmental decision-making elements, paying attention to the study on business environment countermeasures. Mustapha, Manan and Alwi (2017) were from the perspective of production process to analyze that green management should adopt new technologies to reduce or eliminate harmful waste emissions. Scur and Barbosa (2017) were from the perspective of product strategy to figure that the green management should change traditional products into environmental protection products, and people should actively use the "green logo." Ma et al. (2016) mentioned that green management should pay attention to the recycling of waste products. Geng, Mansouri and Aktas (2017) believed that enterprises should actively participate in environmental remediation activities within the community, promoting green publicity towards staff and the public to establish a green corporate image.
5.0 Methodology
5.1 Data collection
This study will make uses of content analysis method. Content analysis method will change non-quantitative literature into quantitative data, and based on these data to make quantitative analysis on the contents of the literatures and make judgments and inferences on the facts (Weber, 1985).
In this study, it will take literatures relating to green management and sustainable development of enterprises as the research objects, through the university library database, Scientific direct, Highwire, and other authoritative database to find and download relevant research literatures. In order to ensure that the content of the research literatures is consistent with the topic and to ensure the accuracy and representativeness of this study, it chooses and selects based on the following principles. First, the research literatures selected should explore the relationship between green management and sustainable development. Second, the selected literatures should come from authoritative peer review magazines.
5.2 Research dimensions and coding
In this study, it will search about 50 pieces of literatures, it will be mainly from the three dimensions to carry out content analysis towards the literatures. Firstly, it is from time dimension to analyze changes in the roles of green management in enterprises’ sustainable development strategy since the 1990s. Secondly, according to the characteristics of different industries, it analyzes the roles of green management in enterprises’ sustainable development strategy. Finally, it will be from the perspectives of decision-making, production technology, product, production waste utilization and corporate image to explore the roles of green management in the sustainable development strategy of enterprises. All literatures will be coded in the form of an article number - chapter number for statistical analysis.
5.3 Key words and data analysis
By carefully reading each of the literatures, it will extract words with actual meaning, and then from these words to select the keywords. The keywords determined in this study include: A- green management, B-sustainable development of enterprises, C – enterprises’ environmental protection decision - making, D - environmental protection production process, E - environmental protection products, F - production waste utilization, G – enterprises’ environmental protection image. Finally, it will statistically analyze the frequency of these keywords in articles of different time periods and in different industries, based on how often they occur to analyze the roles of green management in the corporate sustainability strategy.
6.0 Research ethics
In the process of implementing this research, the author will participant in all process of collecting the literatures and data used in this stud to ensure that the reliability and authenticity of the materials obtained. All literatures and data involved in this study will be used in this dissertation only and will not be applied to any commercial areas. After finishing this research, all first-hand materials will be properly kept to avoid disclosure.
References
Dvořáková, L. and Zborková, J. (2014). Integration of sustainable development at enterprise level. Procedia Engineering, 69, 686-695.
Geng, R., Mansouri, S. A. and Aktas, E. (2017). The relationship between green supply chain management and performance: A meta-analysis of empirical evidences in Asian emerging economies. International Journal of Production Economics, 183(1), 245-258.
Ma, Y. Y. et al. (2016). Sources of resources, alliance green management, and alliance performance in an emerging economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 139(15), 319-327.#p#分页标题#e#
Mustapha, M. A., Manan, Z. A. and Alwi, S. R. W. (2017). Sustainable Green Management System (SGMS) – an integrated approach towards organisational sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 146(10), 158-172.
Roy, M. and Khastagir, D. (2016). Exploring role of green management in enhancing organizational efficiency in petro-chemical industry in India. Journal of Cleaner Production, 121(10), 109-115.
Scur, G. and Barbosa, M. E. (2017). Green supply chain management practices: Multiple case studies in the Brazilian home appliance industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141(10), 1293-1302.
Vanallea, R. M. et al. (2017). Green supply chain management: an investigation of pressures, practices, and performance within the Brazilian automotive supply chain. Journal of Cleaner Production, 151(10), 250-259.
Weber, R. P. (1985). Basic content analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Weichhart, G. et al.(2016). Challenges and current developments for Sensing, Smart and Sustainable Enterprise Systems. Computers in Industry, 79(6), 34-46.
Zhang, Y. et al. (2017). Modeling and dynamic assessment on sustainable development of drainage enterprise: Application of a coupled system dynamics- comprehensive assessment model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141(10), 157-167.
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