Cross-tier ripple and indirect effects of directives WEEE and RoHS on greening a supply chain

Environmental issues have tremendous impact on the development and operations of a supply chain. However, green supply chain management is an emerging research area, thus there are limited conceptual models on this important subject, particularly models that considers the effect of environmental directives on greening a supply chain. Considering the significance of this on the performance of a supply chain, this research develops a conceptual model outlining the antecedents for a successful embeddedness of environmental directives – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) – on greening a supply chain. The conceptual model is theorized from systems thinking and systems theory; and grounded from an extensive current literature. It is validated using in‐depth multiple cases of a supply chain of the Taiwan IT industry. Results show a close map on how the supply chain embeds directives WEEE and RoHS considering the antecedents in the conceptual model and the degree of its impact on the supply chain. It has emerged that directives WEEE and RoHS have the dynamics of a cross‐tier ripple and indirect effects on the Taiwan IT industry's supply chain. This emerging theory explains why collaboration with supply chain partners is the key antecedent on greening a supply chain in order to gain co‐benefits. The cross‐tier ripple and indirect effects theorized from this study and the refined model provide a theoretical framework for further testing in this emerging research area.