What does “green quality” really mean?
ISSN: 1754-2731
Article publication date: 30 November 2018
Issue publication date: 22 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify various dimensions of green quality. It integrates the existing carbon footprinting technique with the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin (1984, 1987). Apart from extending these concepts, it also proposes two new dimensions – traceability and standardization which are not explicitly considered by the above two.
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual theory building is used to develop a framework consisting of three interrelated propositions which explain the underlying dimensions of green quality and provide a better understanding of the same.
Findings
Similar to the eight dimensions of quality proposed by Garvin, the authors propose various dimensions of green quality and develop three propositions around these dimensions. This conceptual framework is developed by integrating the works of traditional quality (specifically Garvin’s eight dimensions), emergent literature on green products and their attributes, carbon footprinting from environmental economics discipline by summarizing their common elements and contrasting their differences.
Originality/value
This research is one of the first studies that explore the dimensions of green quality of a product. Apart from discovering and exploring inherent greenness in Garvin’s eight dimensions of quality, the authors also discuss about two new dimensions – traceability and standardization.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are especially grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewer for their insightful comments and suggestions. The inspiration for writing this paper came from Bowon Kim's Supply Chain Management course in Coursera. The authors would like to thank the participants of Society of Operations Management Conference, 2014 and reviewers of EurOMA Conference, 2014 for their feedback and suggestions. The authors would also want to extend gratitude to Janat Shah, Jishnu Hazra, Deepika Jain and Anik Bose for their contributions to the paper in various the stages of ideation and manuscript preparation.
Citation
Gouda, S.K., Awasthy, P., T.S., K. and R., S. (2019), "What does “green quality” really mean?", The TQM Journal, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 52-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-06-2018-0080
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited