IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-00858349.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Network Approach to Understanding "Green Buying": A Literature Review

Author

Listed:
  • Susanna Xu

    (University of Galway)

  • Helen Walker

    (University of Bath [Bath])

  • Agnès Nairn

    (EM - EMLyon Business School)

  • Thomas Johnsen

    (Audencia Recherche - Audencia Business School)

Abstract

Consumers and organisations are increasingly considering longer term sustainability issues when they purchase or supply goods or services: "green buying" appears to be gaining momentum. However, progress is slow and the percentage of green purchases has remained static at 2% for the last two years. This paper suggests that a network approach to the drivers of green purchasing and supply may provide a fruitful way of gaining a deeper understanding of the issues and of moving towards a greener future for individuals and organisations alike. Currently two parallel bodies of literature exist: consumer behaviour research investigating the values and behavioural motivations of green (and non-green) individuals; and strategic business research analysing the differential responses of firms to a range of pressures to operate in a sustainable fashion. However, there has been little attempt so far to view consumers, businesses and other stakeholders as interdependent actors within a network. In this paper we analyse and synthesis both sets of literature and produce a network picture which shows the links and bond between actors. We suggest that governments and business may find this (literally) joined up view of the green debate particularly useful in understanding how to effect network change in such a way as to nurture more sustainable organisations and, ultimately, societies.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanna Xu & Helen Walker & Agnès Nairn & Thomas Johnsen, 2007. "A Network Approach to Understanding "Green Buying": A Literature Review," Post-Print hal-00858349, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00858349
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00858349v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-00858349v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Brien, Christopher, 1999. "Sustainable production - a new paradigm for a new millennium," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 1-7, April.
    2. McCarty, John A. & Shrum, L. J., 1994. "The recycling of solid wastes: Personal values, value orientations, and attitudes about recycling as antecedents of recycling behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 53-62, May.
    3. Ken Green & Barbara Morton & Steve New, 1996. "Purchasing And Environmental Management: Interactions, Policies And Opportunities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 188-197, September.
    4. Gonzalez-Torre, Pilar L. & Adenso-Diaz, B. & Artiba, Hakim, 2004. "Environmental and reverse logistics policies in European bottling and packaging firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 95-104, March.
    5. Seonaidh McDonald & Caroline J. Oates, 2006. "Sustainability: Consumer Perceptions and Marketing Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 157-170, May.
    6. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 1987. "Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 411-454, March.
    7. Thogersen, John & Olander, Folke, 2002. "Human values and the emergence of a sustainable consumption pattern: A panel study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 605-630, October.
    8. Nelson, Richard R. & Winter, Sidney G., 1993. "In search of useful theory of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 108-108, April.
    9. Dosi, Giovanni, 1993. "Technological paradigms and technological trajectories : A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 102-103, April.
    10. Ian Wycherley, 1999. "Greening supply chains: the case of The Body Shop International," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(2), pages 120-127, March.
    11. Knox, Simon & Maklan, Stan, 2004. "Corporate Social Responsibility:: Moving Beyond Investment Towards Measuring Outcomes," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 508-516, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Papaporn Chaihanchanchai & Saravudh Anantachart, 2023. "Encouraging green product purchase: Green value and environmental knowledge as moderators of attitude and behavior relationship," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 289-303, January.
    2. Silverberg, Gerald & Verspagen, Bart, 2002. "A Percolation Model of Innovation in Complex Technology," Research Memorandum 032, Maastricht University, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    3. Carolina Castaldi & Roberto Fontana & Alessandro Nuvolari, 2009. "‘Chariots of fire’: the evolution of tank technology, 1915–1945," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 545-566, August.
    4. Petersen, Alexander M. & Rotolo, Daniele & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2016. "A triple helix model of medical innovation: Supply, demand, and technological capabilities in terms of Medical Subject Headings," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 666-681.
    5. Hagedoorn, John & Carayannis, Elias & Alexander, Jeffrey, 2001. "Strange bedfellows in the personal computer industry: technology alliances between IBM and Apple," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 837-849, May.
    6. Chang, Yuan-Chieh & Chen, Min-Nan, 2016. "Service regime and innovation clusters: An empirical study from service firms in Taiwan," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1845-1857.
    7. Fu Jia & Yan Jiang, 2018. "Sustainable Global Sourcing: A Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, February.
    8. Alessandri, Enrico, 2023. "Identifying technological trajectories in the mining sector using patent citation networks," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. repec:got:cegedp:102 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Parayil, Govindan, 2003. "Mapping technological trajectories of the Green Revolution and the Gene Revolution from modernization to globalization," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 971-990, June.
    11. Ivanova, Inga & Strand, Øivind & Kushnir, Duncan & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2017. "Economic and technological complexity: A model study of indicators of knowledge-based innovation systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 77-89.
    12. Murmann, Johann Peter & Frenken, Koen, 2006. "Toward a systematic framework for research on dominant designs, technological innovations, and industrial change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 925-952, September.
    13. Leydesdorff, Loet, 2000. "The triple helix: an evolutionary model of innovations," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 243-255, February.
    14. Castellacci, Fulvio, 2008. "Technological paradigms, regimes and trajectories: Manufacturing and service industries in a new taxonomy of sectoral patterns of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6-7), pages 978-994, July.
    15. Giovanni Dosi & Richard Nelson, 2013. "The Evolution of Technologies: An Assessment of the State-of-the-Art," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 3(1), pages 3-46, June.
    16. Kuokkanen, A. & Nurmi, A. & Mikkilä, M. & Kuisma, M. & Kahiluoto, H. & Linnanen, L., 2018. "Agency in regime destabilization through the selection environment: The Finnish food system’s sustainability transition," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1513-1522.
    17. Kamp, Linda M. & Smits, Ruud E. H. M. & Andriesse, Cornelis D., 2004. "Notions on learning applied to wind turbine development in the Netherlands and Denmark," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(14), pages 1625-1637, September.
    18. Gopalakrishnan, Kavitha & Yusuf, Yahaya Y. & Musa, Ahmed & Abubakar, Tijjani & Ambursa, Hafsat M., 2012. "Sustainable supply chain management: A case study of British Aerospace (BAe) Systems," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 193-203.
    19. Mary Tripsas, 2008. "Customer preference discontinuities: a trigger for radical technological change," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2-3), pages 79-97.
    20. Wilfred Dolfsma & Patrick J. Welch, 2009. "Paradigms and Novelty in Economics: The History of Economic Thought as a Source of Enlightenment," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(5), pages 1085-1106, November.
    21. Fulvio Castellacci, 2007. "Technological regimes and sectoral differences in productivity growth ," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 16(6), pages 1105-1145, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    networks; Green; Marketing; Supply;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00858349. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.