THE GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE OF APPAREL INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

This study mainly focused on investigating the level of green supply chain management practices (GSCMP): environmental corporation (EC), green purchasing (GP), corporation with customers (CC), eco-design (ECO), and green transportation & reverse logistics (GTRL) adoption and identify the impact of GSCMP on social sustainability performance (SSP) in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. When reviewing previous studies, the researcher identified that less research attention had been given to SSP. All apparel organizations in Sri Lanka identified as the population is 350. A convenience sampling technique was used to select a sample of 180 respondents. The time horizon of the research is cross-sectional. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and statistically was analyzed using the Pearson correlation liner regression analysis by SPSS. The findings of this quantitative study reflected that GSCMP were in the initial implementation stage, and SSP was considered as a relatively significant one in the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. The correlation findings indicated a positive, strong, and significant relationship between GSCMP and SSP. Regression analysis indicated that there was a positive significant impact of GSCMP and SSP (EC = 0.854, GP = 0.875, CC = 0.921, ECO = 0.819 , GTRL = 0.899). This study contributed to a better understanding of the links between GSCMP and SSP while making several compelling contributions by providing theoretical insights and empirical findings from the Sri Lankan perspective. It is recommended to adopt GSCMP for the apparel industry in Sri Lanka, expecting to improve their SSP.