Title: Exploring environmental sustainability in the food service supply chains

Authors: Gyan Prakash

Addresses: ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management Gwalior, Morena Link Road, Gwalior 474-010, M.P, India

Abstract: This paper aims to identify factors of environmental sustainability in the context of food service supply chains (FSSC). Factors of environmental sustainability have been identified from the review of literature. These factors have been used to capture desirability of restaurant owners and suppliers for adoption of the environmental sustainability indicators. Data have been gathered using a seven-point Likert scale. Hierarchical cluster analysis has been used to combine these indicators into set of clusters. Mann Whitney U test has been used to assess the differences among the perceptions of the groups. Ten factors of environmental sustainability condense into four clusters. Application of Mann Whitney test reveals differences among the groups across certain indicators. Some indicators are interlinked with each other which pose challenges towards environmental sustainability. Restaurants owners as well as their suppliers find generic indicators to be more effective in achieving environmental sustainability. It contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting a perspective from an emerging economy. This paper provides insights on adoption of environmental sustainability in FSSC.

Keywords: carbon footprint; food service supply chains; FSSC; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2018.091195

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise, 2018 Vol.5 No.1/2, pp.2 - 17

Received: 10 Jan 2017
Accepted: 07 Jan 2018
Published online: 15 Apr 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article