Green entrepreneurship (GE) and Green Value Added (GVA): a conceptual framework.

Ndubisi, Nelson Oly ; Nair, Sumesh R.

INTRODUCTION

Natural environmental issues are increasingly becoming integral part of business in every passing day without being recognized as such. It has been argued by many scholars that holistic green business solutions that add value to organizations and their stakeholders should be made part of the basic system of business (e.g. Banerjee et. al. 2003; Coddington, 1993; Charter, 1992; Menon & Menon, 1997; Ottman, 1993; Polonsky, 1995; Porter & van der Linde, 1995; Peattie, 1995), so much so that addressing the natural environmental problems has become a matter of 'survival and prosperity' of every business (Baker & Sinkula, 2005). Many organizations view environmental activities as fragmented functions like waste minimization, pollution control, recycling, etc. However, in many instances green business practices do not exist in isolation; rather they thrive as a comprehensive business philosophy and culture leading to superior firm performance (Nair, 2004; Baker & Sinkula, 2005; Nair & Menon, forthcoming) and value addition. This paper is an attempt to develop conceptual models on basic green business culture leading to firm performance and stakeholder value addition. The authors of the article propose to call this concept as Green Value Added (GVA). Porter's (1985) Value Chain framework is used in this article as a basic premise in developing GVA process model. Entrepreneurs are capable of bringing in innovative and revolutionary changes to business (Ndubisi, 2004), hence entrepreneurship is taken as a conduit for introducing Green Value Added (GVA). Those entrepreneurs voluntarily adopting GVA is referred as Green Entrepreneurs (GE) in the article. The article proposes that careful development of GVA by green entrepreneurs will add value to all key stakeholders of the organization and at the same time protect the natural environment. The article discusses two models; GVA system model and GVA process model. GVA systems model is a simple framework that depicts the details of how a GVA is developed and adds value to stakeholders and natural environment. The GVA process model is a detail version of the GVA process.

RELEVANCE OF GREEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP (GE)

Many studies have established a strong relationship between environmental friendly business practices (e.g. environmental marketing) and firm performance (e.g. Miles & Covin, 2000; Backer & Sinkula, 2005). However, not many studies have developed a comprehensive environmental orientation that impacts the entire organizational system and adds value to the organisation and its stakeholders. Porter & van der Linde (1995) have suggested that managers should think 'environmental improvements' in terms of 'economic and competitive opportunity' that adds organizational and customer value. For achieving this end a comprehensive green value chain should be developed that effectively connects the organizations with its stakeholders in a sustainable fashion. Development of such a system calls for incremental and breakthrough innovations (Zheng et al, 2005), risk-taking propensity, persistence and flexibility (Ndubisi, 2004; Ndubisi et al. 2005) that characterize entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are capable of creating small and medium sized organizations that will have the necessary flexibility and endurance to embrace such innovative practices. Osukoya (2007) argued that small firms have several advantages over big firm in adopting environmental practices. Consumers tend to see small firms more environment friendly than their bigger counterparts, and small firms are in a position to react actively to the increasing demands of green products and services in almost all segments of markets (Osukoya (2007). Certain studies have also suggested that an entrepreneurial spirit is more important in making green business innovations than regulations (e.g. Martinsons et. al., 1996). Hence, a green entrepreneurial orientation is vital for developing GVA. In this article, the propensity to innovate or create a green organization is referred to as green entrepreneurship. Thus green entrepreneurship is an essential element of a comprehensive green system like Green Value Added.

GREEN VALUE ADDED (GVA)

Many comprehensive management initiatives have been proposed by business scholars and practitioners for combating the environmental issues. Some of such practices are: Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) (Banerjee, 1998), Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing (ERM) (Handson et. al, 2004), Corporate Environmentalism (CM) (Banerjee, 1998, Banerjee et. al., 2003), Environmental Marketing (EM) (Charter, 1993; Ottman, 1993; Peattie, 1995), to name a few. Green Value Added (GVA) is a concept in the same genre proposed in the article based on Porter's value chain analysis. If an entrepreneur wish to build a 'Sustainable Corporation' then he/she needs to integrate 'environmental and social issues' to achieve long term shareholder value (Banerjee, 2002). Although environmental issues are caused primarily by economic and technological factors, a solution to it cannot be made through these perspectives alone; because environmental problems also have cultural, behavioural and institutional impacts (see Hoffman & Sandelands, 2005). Therefore a comprehensive green business solution based on GVA should take cultural, behavioural and institutional factors into consideration along with economic and technological factors. Thus, GVA is developed in a green entrepreneurship (GE) culture, which in turn breeds green desires and behaviours, with the support of well-developed pro-green institutions and pro-green stakeholders.

Another perspective that the article emphasize is the importance of developing GVA as a basic business system. Claver-Cortes et. al. (2007) argue that environmental friendly business practices are source of great value addition to organizations hence should be treated as a capital. Environmental capital according to Claver-Cortes et. al. (2007) is part of firm's intellectual capital and "... the creation, transfer and application of knowledge allows them (firms) to offer the market products and services that are more environmentally friendly and therefore have a higher added-value component." (Claver-Cortes et. al., 2007). For GVA to be developed as a source of core competence of a firm, it should be essentially developed as an intellectual capital. Green entrepreneur can spearhead the development of such a knowledge organization that actively learns for environmental efficiency and perpetually develops green products and services. The green knowledge hence acquired will form part of the priceless environmental capital of the firm.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a simple GVA system and a discussion follows.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

THE GVA SYSTEM

The GVA systems framework is a comprehensive model that shows how a green entrepreneur builds the organization using GVA. GVA is not an environmental friendly function of the firm, rather it is developed as an organization wide culture and guiding philosophy that adds value to the key stakeholders, to the entrepreneurial firm itself and ultimately to the environment (the physical and socio-economic environments). GVA essentially adds green value to all parties concerned, which is the ultimate aim of the system. However, one should not mistake it as a mechanism for achieving only green objectives that may not be in compliance with other economic and social objectives of organizations. GVA is basically designed to deliver as well, all economic and social goals of the entrepreneurial firms at both micro and macro levels, however, the achievement of these goals are made in the most sustainable and environmental friendly manner as possible. That means GVA retains the usual objectives like profit maximization and shareholder value maximization of a business organization. The major difference in GVA is its inherent green structure, designed to achieve the economic objectives of business without compromising its environmental commitments. How GVA achieves these dual objectives is discussed in the following section of GVA process.

THE GVA PROCESS

The GVA process draws from the value chain model proposed by Porter (1985) as depicted in the Figure 2. Green Value is added in both the primary and support activities of value creation process. A detailed discussion on the GVA process follows.

Primary activities

Green inbound logistics

Inbound logistics is responsible for receiving the materials from the suppliers and storing it until it is ready for use. Eco-efficiency can be achieved in all those related activities like transportation, martial handling, storage and warehousing. Good relationship and better connectivity with the suppliers will help the firm go for pro-green practices like Just in Time (JIT) inventory system and similar environmental friendly practices. Introduction of e-logistics systems will help manage logistical issues considerably well and help reduce cost in material handling and storage thereby increasing market competitiveness (Sarkis et. al., 2004) and sustainability. The transportation methods can be made more energy efficient and pollution free. The selection of mode of transportation plays an important role here. Selecting transport service providers who can understand and emulate the firm's green initiatives will fetch long-term results in developing eco-efficient transport services. For example, haulers that use alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) will better serve the green logistics goals of the firm and ultimately green value addition. Material handling and storage can be made effective for better eco-performance. Changes in the mode and method of packing (e.g. bulk packing, use of recyclable packing materials etc.) can save money in material handling (Wu & Dunn, 1995). Storage efficiency can be achieved by proactive warehouse designing and use of reusable containers (Wu & Dunn, 1995). Solar powered warehousing facilities are compatible with firms' green storage and warehousing objectives, and can form an important criterion for choosing service providers. Other innovative ways of greening and sustainably developing the warehousing system are through 'green roofing' of the facility and cross docking. Innovative methods like cross-docking are used by many companies like Wal-Mart in their attempt to attain efficiency in warehousing operations (Wu & Dunn, 1995).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Green operations

Implementation of an environmental management system (EMS) standard like ISO 14001 will help streamline green operations. An EMS standard is capable of incorporating environmental management into a company's daily operations as well as long term oriented strategic planning (Chavan, 2005). Implementation of an EMS also helps in standardizing the firms operations that ultimately result in cost reduction in many ways (Zutshi & Sohal, 2004). Several studies have supported the evidence of improved environmental performance due to the implementation of EMS (e.g. Theyel, 2000). Innovative use of appropriate environmental technology in production and operations will essentially help improve the performance of EMS. A detailed discussion of the environmental technology adoption follows in a later part of the article. From the green manufacturing literature Pun (2004) has identified six major tools that can be used for environmental responsible operations (ERO) : i) life cycle assessment; ii) green quality function deployment; iii) design for recycling and remanufacturing; iv) green purchasing; v) green material requirements planning; and vi) green supply chain. Most of these tools are essentially part of an EMS standard like ISO 14001 and has overlapping effect on other green value chain activities.

Green outbound logistics

Outbound logistics facilitates distribution of finished products and services using technologies of transportation, material handling, packaging, etc. Use of imaginative distribution system and appropriate information ad communication technologies will help to make outbound logistics more energy efficient and pollution free. The earlier discussion on efficiency in transportation, material handling and storage under inbound logistics is relevant here as well. The only difference between inbound and outbound logistics is the nature of products it handles; finished products in case of outbound logistics and raw materials for inbound logistics (Wu & Dunn, 1995). Making distribution partners to adopt and emulate the environmental friendly activities of the firm can help the outbound logistics to be more eco-friendly (Nair, 2004) and more sustainable (Ndubisi & Chukwunonso, 2008). Development of a vertical green marketing system (VGMS) will also help to build a green network of the firm and its distribution partners for improved eco-performance.

Green Marketing & Sales

Green marketing and sales has a more responsible role to play in GVA because of its impact and influence on other activities. According to Charter (1992), "greener marketing is a holistic and responsible strategic management process that identifies, anticipates, satisfies and fulfils stakeholder needs, for a reasonable reward, that does not adversely affect human or natural environmental well- being." It is therefore the role of green marketing to ensure the support of the firms stakeholders for GVA and at the same time make sure that the stakeholder needs are fulfilled at the most sustainable fashion. Customers being the most important stakeholder for a company, green marketing should give more emphasis on communicating with them and if necessary educating them on the green initiatives of the firm. Ideally green marketing should develop an internal and external orientation (Banerjee et. al., 2003), to take care of the needs of internal and external customers separately. The internal green marketing directed at employees and management of the firm can be a collaborative act with Green Human Resources Management (GHRM) that will be discussed in a later part of this article. External green marketing initiatives should be part of a carefully developed strategy to develop effective communication channels to connect with the major external stakeholders to help identify, develop and deliver their needs in the most environmentally benign way. Green firms often share the onus for how customers acquire, use and dispose off products supplied to them. By assuming shared responsibility with customers, they are motivated to use bio-degradable materials and to implement recycling projects and other waste management initiatives in the subsequent discussion.

Green services

Green customers might need the firm's support in using and disposing the innovative green products. This is more so in the initial stages of firm's GVA commitments where use of new green technology necessitates a lot of supportive services to the customers who are using the green products of the firm for the first time. Disposing off the product waste during and after use is a major issue that needs extended green services of the firm committed to GVA. It is likely that firm's key stakeholders will have several concerns and doubts about the GVA. Green services can take the lead role in organising educational and training programmes for better understanding and practice of GVA. In short, green services should offer excellent customer and stakeholder support services for the best use of green products and a better understanding of the green commitments of green entrepreneurs.

Internal Support Activities

Green infrastructure development

Green infrastructure development involves the activities in developing a conducive operating environment suitable for GVA. The organizational structure, control mechanisms and organizational culture usually impacts the infrastructure environment of a firm. To create such an environment, a green entrepreneur should develop a culture where everyone recognizes "environmental improvements as an economic and competitive opportunity, not as an annoying cost or an inevitable threat" (Porter & van der, 1995). The green infrastructure should be flexible enough to adopt the changing environmental needs. Green entrepreneur consistently tries to find ways to improve green infrastructure for excellence and improved performance. Such infrastructure proactively developed to support green primary activities and accommodate other green internal supportive initiatives, are deemed as green infrastructure for a green entrepreneur. ISO 14001 EMS standard will give necessary guidelines to develop a pro-environmental infrastructure in the firm. The whole affair can be made effective with appropriate professional advice on these matters. Environmental management consulting firms and environmental auditing firms can be used for this propose.

Green Human Resource Management

A green human resource management (GHRM) is directly responsible for developing a green workforce that understands, appreciates and practices GVA. GHRM should uphold its green objectives intact all throughout the HRM process of recruiting, hiring, training, compensating, developing and advancing the firm's human capital. If the employees are exposed to the green culture of the firm right from the very beginning, it is easy to develop a green workforce that will form the backbone of GVA. This way GVA can be made as an intellectual property of the firm that can translate to sustainable competitive advantage. During the selection process, GHRM system could use appropriate measures to identify potentially green employees, such as generic knowledge of the environment and specific incidences of environmental hazards, involvement with environmental advocacy, and past experience and involvement with green projects. Training and development programmes should aim at creating awareness, interest, motivation, and skill to contribute to the firm's GVA initiatives. Of course, there is no gain saying that employees that have demonstrated exceptional commitment to these initiatives should be recognized and rewarded with career advancement. Moreover, an excellent green entrepreneurial leadership will fetch excellent results too. The founder of the business can help develop a green culture in the organization. Anita Roddick of Bodyshop, the UK based cosmetics manufacturer and retailer, is a good example here.

Green technology adoption

Green technology adoption is both a matter of natural choice to a green entrepreneur and a key support for green primary activities. Studies have indicated that environmental or green technology that is adopted as a preventive measure may increase the cost initially but ultimately reduces it in the long-term (Porter & van der, 1995). Innovative environmental technology adoption is a healthy sign of combating environmental issues in the most competitive fashion. Environmental (or green) technologies are defined by Srivastava (1995) as "production equipment, methods and equipments, product designs, and product delivery mechanisms that conserve energy and natural resources, minimize environmental load of human activities, and protect the natural environment." Environmental technology would be viewed both as part of technologies and management orientation. Technologies are in the form of hardware like pollution control equipment, ecological measurement instrumentation, etc. and management orientation is formed as operating methods like waste management practices, and conservation oriented work arrangements (Srivastava, 1995). Both the hardware and the software part of environmental technologies should be looked at as integral part of the green management practice of the firm so that better cost effective results can be achieved in the most competitive fashion. Tools like Total Quality Environmental Marketing (TQEM) can be used to implement environmental technologies effectively (Banerjee, 1998, Hartman & Stafford, 1998)

Green Procurement

Green procurement plays a key role in preventing some of the possible environmental issues a firm might face in the future. Pollution and wastage can be reduced to a large extent if raw materials are sourced carefully. Green procurement will become a vital element in GVA for effective source reduction and excellent relationship with suppliers. Both source reduction and supplier relationships are equally important for GVA. Source reduction will result in better resource productivity by substituting expensive materials and effectively utilizing the existing ones (Porter & van der Linde, 1995). This can also help the organization to avoid or minimize the utilization of depleting resources and can encourage the use of recyclable, biodegradable, photodegradable, and compostable resources. Establishing long term, quality relationship with the suppliers is of paramount importance for achieving these ends. No green initiatives are complete if a firm's supply chain partners are neither green nor willing to go green (Nair & Menon, forthcoming). If necessary the firm can arrange environmental education and training for their supply chain partners. The green entrepreneur can take a deliberate decision to do business with green suppliers or those suppliers who are willing to go green. Many studies have revealed the positive outcomes of a green supply chain relationship between the manufacturer and their supply chain partners (e.g. Simpson, 2007). It is imperative to take green procurement very seriously by a green entrepreneur considering its primacy among business activities and its organisation wide impact on green performance.

External Support Activities

External factors also play key roles for the successful implementation of GVA, rather indirectly. The major external factors identified are economic conditions, NGO partnership, public support and government policy. There are indeed other factors that might impact GVA, but the factors mentioned above are assumed to have a major influence.

Economic Condition

Favourable economic conditions generally inspire and facilitate innovative entrepreneurial initiates like GVA. There have been numerous studies indicating the correlation between favourable economic conditions and adoption of environmental initiatives (Ndubisi & Chukwunonso, 2005; 2008), and performance of business ventures (Baker & Sinkula, 2005; Nair & Menon, forthcoming). It is more likely that green entrepreneurs will venture into building green firms in a more conducive economic environment than otherwise. And when the economic conditions are favourable, consumer affinity towards green products will be greater as they have enough disposable income to experiment with innovative green products. Hence, favourable economic conditions can be counted as a major external economic factor that supports GVA.

NGO Partnership

A green alliance (Stafford, et al. 2000) with environmental NGOs will help green entrepreneurs to achieve their green goals more effectively. A green alliance can be helpful in many ways. It can help the green entrepreneur establish relationship with other major stakeholders (Polonsky, 1995; Stafford & Hartman, 1996; Stafford, et al. 2000) while providing environmental expertise (Stafford & Hartman, 1996; Stafford, et al. 2000) to perform the functions of the green organization. It is of vital importance to a green entrepreneur to be connected to the environmental NGOs groups for their support and expertise in the area. The Green NGOs by virtue of their relentless crusade against environmental damage and contamination has the necessary environmental market knowledge and have networking with major environmental stakeholders. This knowledge base might prove to be very vital for the success of green entrepreneurial start-ups. Green alliance, hence, would pose as a valuable external support factor for GVA.

Public Support

Regulations and public scrutiny will impact the green initiatives positively (Epstein & Roy, 2000). Green entrepreneurship needs the necessary community and public support to make its GVA venture a success. A strong relation with the community is major prerequisite and success factor for green entrepreneurs. The public supports green initiatives that create jobs and safeguards the natural environment. An initial public relation campaign to educate the public would ensure their support as they later can become partners and customers of the green entrepreneurial venture. Green ventures will be successful if they gain public support as the public forms the market for and the major stakeholder of green initiatives. Therefore, public support can be rated as an important factor supporting green entrepreneurship and hence GVA.

Government Policy

Most of the Governments in the world have been committed to environmental protection as a priority issue. There have been carefully developed environmental policies and regulations to protect the natural environment in many parts of the world. An environmental policy will create an ideal climate to breed environmental friendly business practices like green entrepreneurship if it has a way to reward firms which excel in that regard. Business and industry policies and regulations developed by the Governments should be designed in such a way that it will encourage new business start-ups with environmental initiatives. Such initiatives will foster economic growth through innovation, job creation, and globalization (Barringer & Ireland, 2006) while protecting the environment. On the flip side, government policies that penalize environmentally unfriendly firms would assist in improving the compliance rate to environmental quality standards and motivation to implement green initiatives. Government policy, no doubt, is very powerful in supporting the growth of green entrepreneurship and GVA.

CONCLUSIONS

GVA is projected in the article as an ideal green platform for small and medium sized organisations that is founded by green entrepreneurs. Green entrepreneurship is considered critical for the successful development of GVA because of its flexibility, propensity to take calculated risks, innovative orientation and perseverance while facing challenges. Innovations generally add value, but at the same time they are prone to failure, thus making it risky. It calls for perseverance, in seeking acceptance and desired outcomes. It demands an innovative, flexible, risk-taking and persistent entrepreneur to create value adding green innovations. A GVA needs synergic blend of all the above entrepreneurial traits to be effective. GVA is proposed as a basic value adding business process blended with eco-efficient green initiatives that does not compromise on the economic and social objectives of a business. No business activity, both internal and external, is spared from GVA. That is to say in a firm green value addition occurs at all points and stages of the business process, and most importantly everyone is responsible ad can be involved. Green entrepreneurial leadership plays a vital role in creating a green culture in the organization. Such a culture can breed significant environmental knowledge and expertise that could translate into an intellectual capital for the firm leading in turn to sustainable competitive advantage. By adapting and blending the primary business activities with green initiatives, entrepreneurial ventures can create green value added to important stakeholders with the support of internal factors such as green procurement, green infrastructure, green human resources, green technology, and external factors namely, conducive economic condition, NGO participation and advocacy, public support and favourable government policy.

Lastly, this article creates opportunities for future research in the area. GVA is developed as a conceptual framework in the article and needs empirical validation. The possibilities and properties of developing a GVA in real life business setting needs to be researched further and the conceptual framework developed in the article can be used as a basis for the empirical validation.

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Nelson Oly Ndubisi, Nottingham University

Sumesh R. Nair, Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia