Analyzing the interactions among barriers of sustainable supply chain management practices: A case study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify, model, analyze and prioritize the barriers in implementing sustainable practices in rubber products manufacturing industry in Kerala, a state in South India. This research provides a more reliable quantitative measure of association of the barriers in the implementation of sustainable practices in the rubber products manufacturing sector.Design/methodology/approachInterpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to develop the hierarchical relationships among the barriers in the implementation of sustainable supply chain practices in the rubber products manufacturing sector. The hierarchical structure among the barriers is framed using the experts’ opinion. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to the classification (MICMAC) analysis is integrated with the output of ISM to classify the barriers into different categories based on the driving power and the dependence power. The driving power and the dependence power of the barriers obtained from ISM constitute two criteria for prioritizing the barriers. The change management required is considered as the third criterion. The fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) methodology is adopted to prioritize the barriers based on these three criteria.FindingsThe hierarchical relationship obtained through ISM methodology shows that lack of government initiatives and lack of benchmark on sustainability measurement in Indian conditions are the major barriers in implementing sustainable practices in the rubber products manufacturing sector. These barriers lead to the lack of management commitment for the implementation of sustainable practices in the organizations under study. The prioritization obtained through the F-AHP method suggests that lack of top-level management commitment, lack of motivation, lack of government initiatives and high initial cost of implementation are some of the major barriers in implementing sustainable practices in the organizations.Research limitations/implicationsIn the application of the ISM methodology, the contextual relationship between the barriers specified by the experts and their preferences may involve bias. Another limitation of this research is that the modeling and prioritization of the barriers are executed based on the opinion of experts from rubber product manufacturing companies in one state only.Originality/valueTo the best knowledge of the authors, this research is the first study on the identification and prioritization