A Cross-Country Empirical Comparison of Environmental Supply Chain Management Practices in the Automotive Industry

In this paper we employ a ‘pressures–practice–performance’ framework to compare the adoption and influence of Environmental Supply Chain Management (ESCM) practices within the automotive sector in two economies on different trajectories, the UK and China. Using an empirical study of 128 organizations, 39 in the UK and 89 in China, we investigate and tease out some characteristic observations on ESCM pressures, practices and performance within the automotive industry. We provide a general comparative analysis of ESCM pressures, practices and performance, with a focus on the similarities and differences between these two countries. Using ipsative t-tests analysis, our results show that there are more similarities than differences between ESCM pressures, practices and performance in these two countries. The possibility of variations in market development stages has caused the UK's automotive organizations to experience fewer external pressures and greater internal pressures. Chinese automotive organizations implement generally higher levels of ESCM practices than UK automotive organizations; however, this difference has not resulted in significantly greater performance improvements.