The Psychological Motivation For Adopting Green Supply Chain Management Practices: An Ethical-Religious Perspective

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the psychological underpinnings for adopting Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices among Muslims community by exploring the Islamic view and teachings of environmental protection and GSCM practices. By taking an ethical-religious perspective, this research provides a list of verses from the Holy Quran and the Hadiths (the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him, PBUH)) that promote and encourage behaviors related to environmental protection and GSCM practices. To achieve this objective, a qualitative approach was used; the Hermeneutic Content Analysis (HCA) method was adopted to interpret the Quran and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 Islamic experts and researchers. The results show that environmental protection is deeply embedded in the Islamic faith and is considered the only way of maintaining life balance and that Islamic teachings are strongly aligned with various GSCM practices. Further, the results show that the main motivation for Muslims to adopt GSCM practices is their faith because Islam consider protecting the natural environment as a religious duty. This particular finding is of a great interest as it contradicts with the Western perspective and theories such as; Stakeholder theory, Institutional Theory and Natural Resource Based View (NRBV) which argue that organizations and countries engage in green practices due to external pressures or to gain advantages. Moreover, this research presents a unique and distinctive view of GSCM, which will be beneficial for organizations, managers, and policymakers to consider the impact of faith and ethical codes on facilitating green behaviors.