Adoption of green innovation practices in SMEs sector: evidence from an emerging economy

Figures & data

Table 1. Relevant literature.

Findings	Type	Reference (s)
This study investigated the SMEs management systems in the European Union, the authors identified barriers and opportunities by studying 33 studies including implementation, support and guidance, resources and perception.	Review	(Hillary, 2004)
This study focused on SMEs drivers and obstacles to green innovation in Australia. The barriers reported by authors were lack of knowledge about the environment and availability of resources.	Review	(Walker et al., 2008)
The authors conducted a study in Netherland and investigated environmental leaders about recommendations for green innovation. The authors reported 26 barriers including the availability of resources, increased costs and sustainable products.	Survey analysis	(Runhaar et al., 2008)
This study was conducted in Japan, and the authors mainly reported green innovation approaches. The main barriers the authors identified are regulations, economic barriers, technological barriers, lack of market demand and managerial obstacles.	Survey analysis	(Arundel & Kemp, 2009)
The authors identified main obstacles to green innovation in European union SMEs, such as technical capabilities, market barriers, knowledge barriers and uncertain returns.	PCA analysis	(Marin et al., 2015)
This study reported the barriers such as financial barriers, knowledge obstacles and market obstacles to green innovation in French SMEs.	Multinominal logit estimation and regression	(Pinget et al., 2015)
The authors analyzed a case study in Slovenia regarding green innovation obstacles in SMEs sector, the main obstacles were internal barrier (cost) and external barrier (legislations).	Case study	(Hojnik & Ruzzier, 2016)
The main barrier reported by the authors in European union was lack of public funding in SMEs.	Logit regression	(Cecere et al., 2020)
Authors reported main obstacles/barriers in Malaysia were the product, Environmental resources, government support and perception and attitude barriers to green innovations SMEs.	PLS analysis	(Abdullah et al., 2016)
This study analyzed the impact of financial barriers SMEs green innovation adoption. Authors reported that financial barriers green innovation adoption was sometimes neglected in SMEs. and they are mostly neglected by SMEs.	SEM analysis	(Ghisetti et al., 2017)

Source: authors compilation.

Table 2. Main and sub-barriers.

Barriers	Code	Sub-barriers	References
Technical	T-1	Lack of new technologies	(Gunasekaran & Spalanzani, 2012; Hutzschenreuter & Horstkotte, 2010; Jindal & Sangwan, 2011; Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Li & Olorunniwo, 2008; Patil & Kant, 2014; Ravi & Shankar, 2005; Thierry et al., 1995)
	T-2	Lack of R&D capacity
	T-3	Complex process
	T-4	Lack of tools
Marketing	MT-1	Inaccessibility to market	(Fleischmann, 2001; Geyer & Jackson, 2004; Guide & Srivastava, 1997; Jindal & Sangwan, 2011; Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Li & Olorunniwo, 2008; Ravi & Shankar, 2005; Srivastava, 2008; Stock, 2001)
	MT-2	Lack of customer responsiveness
	MT-3	Customers’ requirements regulations
Economic	EC-1	Unavailability of loans	(Hicks et al., 2005; Jindal & Sangwan, 2011; Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Presley et al., 2007; Rogers & Tibben-Lembke, 1999)
	EC-2	Poor financial resources and lack of staff
	EC-3	Less return of investment and high costs
	EC-4	High hazard waste disposition costs lack of resources capabilities
	EC-5	Disposal of perilous wastes costs
Information	I-1	Problems in access of environmental information	(Abdulrahman et al., 2014; Chung & Zhang, 2011; Ghisetti et al., 2017; Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Pinget et al., 2015; Zhou et al., 2007)
	I-2	Absence of HR knowledge
	I-3	Advice from stakeholders and use of information
	I-4	Lack of ability
Managerial	ML-1	Lack of human resources	(Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Li & Olorunniwo, 2008; Ravi & Shankar, 2005; Srivastava, 2008)
	ML-2	Lack of capability to innovate
	ML-3	Lack of trainings
Legal	ML-4	Owners’ governance issues
	L-1	Regulations	(Hutzschenreuter & Horstkotte, 2010; Jindal & Sangwan, 2011; Hung Lau & Wang, 2009; Patil & Kant, 2014)
	L-2	Lack of guidelines and lower support
	L-3	Low involvement of governmental support
	L-4	Consultancy to monitor the progress of each industry

Source: authors compilation.

Table 3. List of 15 essential strategies.

NO	Strategies	References
S1	State/establishment institutions need to subsidize SMEs to produce green products	(Dat et al., 2012)
S2	Enhance R&D exercises	(Efendigil et al., 2008)
S3	Proper discloser of information	(Hung Lau & Wang, 2009)
S4	Conducting training programs regarding green innovation practices in SMEs	(Somsuk & Laosirihongthong, 2017)
S5	adopt the advance financial mods of financing	(Vanhaverbeke, 2006)
S6	A concrete SME policy	(Horbach et al., 2012)
S7	Pakistan should have a strategy to provide suppliers for foreign-financed projects	(Eltayeb et al., 2011)
S8	Relationships with environmental and social groups	(Friedman & Miles, 2002)
S9	Provide training to businessmen about green purchasing for SMEs	(Arundel & Kemp, 2009)
S10	Increase awareness programs regarding green innovation in SMEs	(Vanhaverbeke, 2006)
S11	Easy access to finances from institutions
S12	Green manufacturing capabilities	(Blok et al., 2015)
S13	Environmental audits of suppliers	(Sarkis, 2001)
S14	Enhanced productivity and firms’ performance	(Corral, 2003)
S15	Purchasing environmentally friendly raw materials	(De Medeiros et al., 2014; Kapetanopoulou & Tagaras, 2011; Mathiyazhagan et al., 2014)

Source: authors compilation.

Figure 1. Study framework.

Source: authors compilation.

Table 4. Represent the TFNs (Triangular fuzzy numbers) scale.

S.No	Responsive linguistics (RL)	TFNs
One	Very Low	(1-2-3)
Two	Low	(2-3-4)
Three	Modest low	(3-4-5)
Four	Moderate	(4-5-6)
Five	Average	(5-6-7)
Six	Reasonable Average	(6-7-8)
Seven	Improved	(7-8-9)

Source: Han and Trimi, (2018), authors compilation.

Table 5. Ranking of main/major barriers.

Main barriers	Sub-barriers	Code	Rank	Main criteria weights	Priority weights of sub-criteria	Global weights of sub-criteria
Economic barriers	Unavailability of loans	EC-1	4^th	0.143	0.196	0.028028
	Limited financial and staff resources and environmental legislation	EC-2	2^nd		0.206	0.029458
	Less return of investment and high costs	EC-3	1^st		0.218	0.031174
	lack of resources capabilities	EC-4	5^th		0.182	0.026026
	Disposal of perilous wastes costs	EC-5	3^rd		0.198	0.028314
Marketing barriers	Inaccessibility to market	MT-1	3^rd	0.139	0.278	0.038642
	Lack of customer responsiveness	MT-2	1^st		0.366	0.050874
	Customers’ requirements regulations	MT-3	2^nd		0.356	0.049484
Legal barriers	Regulations	L-1	2^nd	0.185	0.255	0.047175
	Lack of guidelines and lower support	L-2	3^rd		0.241	0.044585
	Low involvement of governmental support	L-3	1^st		0.286	0.05291
	Consultancy to monitor progress of each industry	L-4	4^th		0.219	0.040515
Information barrier	Problems in access of environmental information	I-1	1^st	0.180	0.253	0.04554
	Absence of HR knowledge	I-2	4^th		0.247	0.04446
	Advice from stakeholders and use of information	I-3	2^nd		0.25	0.045
	Lack of ability	I-4	3^rd		0.249	0.04482
Technical barrier	Lack of new technologies	T-1	3^rd	0.179	0.235	0.042065
	Lack of R&D capacity	T-2	1^st		0.258	0.046182
	Complex process	T-3	2^nd		0.277	0.049583
	Lack of tools	T-4	4^th		0.23	0.04117
Managerial barriers	Lack of HR	ML-1	4^th	0.175	0.188	0.0329
	Lack of capability to innovate	ML-2	1^st		0.281	0.049175
	Lack of training	ML-3	2^nd		0.291	0.050925
	Owners’ governance issues	ML-4	3^rd		0.24	0.042

Source: authors compilation.

Table 7. Table Paired comparison matrix of main/major barriers.

	EC			MT			L			I			T			ML
EC	1	1	1	0.695	0.95	1.272	0.637	0.849	1.137	0.555	0.714	0.991	0.616	0.819	1.158	0.726	0.975	1.337
MT	0.786	1.052	1.438	1	1	1	0.605	0.834	1.188	0.58	0.765	1.081	0.565	0.732	1.035	0.566	0.765	1.109
L	0.879	1.176	1.568	0.41	1.198	1.65	1	1	1	0.739	1.044	1.449	0.847	1.138	1.544	0.863	1.206	1.621
I	1.0084	1.399	1.799	0.924	1.306	1.723	0.69	0.957	1.353	1	1	1	0.746	0.971	1.283	0.668	0.917	1.263
T	0.863	1.219	1.621	0.965	1.364	1.767	0.647	0.878	1.179	0.863	1.147	1.502	1	1	1	0.649	0.91	1.272
ML	0.748	1.025	1.377	0.901	1.306	1.767	0.616	0.829	1.158	0.791	1.09	1.496	0.786	1.098	1.541	1	1	1

Source: authors compilation.

Table 6. Ranking of solutions/strategies.

Solutions	d^+	d^-	(CCi)	Final Ranking
S1	0.2027	17.4396	0.9885	1
S2	14.6808	2.9747	0.1685	14
S3	6.4811	11.1668	0.6328	5
S4	8.7364	8.9194	0.5052	6
S5	6.1388	11.5145	0.6523	4
S6	2.2391	15.4256	0.8732	2
S7	13.7668	3.8656	0.2192	13
S8	15.0514	2.5245	0.1436	15
S9	10.2802	7.3666	0.4174	7
S10	12.4175	5.2015	0.2952	12
S11	5.8444	11.8221	0.6692	3
S12	10.9721	6.6644	0.3779	8
S13	11.134	6.4966	0.3685	10
S14	11.0857	6.5753	0.3723	9
S15	11.1765	6.4647	0.3665	11

Source: authors compilation.

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