Abstract
Purpose: This research aims to identify the green purchasing practices that manufacturing companies have been using and investigate the relationship between those practices and company overall performance. This paper focuses on green-purchasing practices, such as green products, green suppliers, environmental collaboration with suppliers, green packaging, and reverse logistics, to ensure sustainable practices in the supply chain, and the influence of those practices on firm's performance was investigated from the perspective of managers perception.Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative approach was adopted, based on eight case studies. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews with procurement managers from Portuguese manufacturing industry and from reports, websites and companies' internal documentation. To analyze the impact of green purchasing practices on company overall performance a conceptual model was proposed.Findings: The findings support two of the five research hypotheses. According to managers' perceptions, companies implement green procurement practices such as environmental collaboration with suppliers, green packaging, and reverse logistics, and evidence shows that green procurement practices improve overall company performance.Research limitations/implications: While the sample included organizations from several economic sectors, it was based on a sample of eight case studies and the findings may not be valid in different sectors. This research focuses on green procurement from a country's perspective, which reduces the ability to generalize the findings to other countries.Practical implications: Managers might utilize the results of this study to develop and implement green purchasing practices and enhance organizations' overall performance via their adoption.Social implications: This research contributes to the current discussion in green supply chain literature.Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing body of research on the effects of implementing green purchasing practices into the procurement function.