Green Manufacturing in Agro Processing SMEs: Unraveling the Relationship Between Drivers and Their Effects on Adoption Practices in Ghana

Abstract

Environmental matters have been a subject of importance for national policy makers, ecology concerned groups and organizations. Green initiatives such as, green manufacturing has been seen to be a game changer in ensuring environmentally safe manufacturing by firms and nations while reaping the accompanying benefits. Investigations into motivating factors are still not fully carried out from all contexts. This research sought to find the effects that these drivers have on adoption of eco-friendly initiatives among small and medium enterprises from a developing country context. Structural Equation Model was adopted to analyze the data and verify the hypotheses. The outcomes indicate that financial and business benefits, competitor pressure and national environmental regulations positively influenced the adoption of green manufacturing adoption initiatives. Management and staff commitment influenced adoption slightly. These outcomes are vital to developing strategies for improving green practices implementation within firms for positive environmental and economic performance. Governments in developing nations especially Ghana will be well informed on which parts of the regulations to strengthen and enforce for improved environmental responsibility from Ghanaian agro processing small and medium enterprises and other businesses.