Developing a Green Supply Chain Model for Improving the Sustainable Development of the Environment Using a Grounded-Theory-based Qualitative Approach

As one of the top ten industries in the world, tourism plays an important role in the economic cycle, contributing significantly to revenue generation and currency earning. Therefore, this study sought to identify and develop a conceptual model for managing the green supply chain in the tourism industry of Fars province using the grounded theory-based qualitative approach. To this end, the required data were collected through document analysis and interviews with 20 experts who were selected via the snowball sampling method. Moreover, the validity of the study was examined and confirmed by the interviewees and the expert professors. Finally, the collected data were coded through the open coding, axial coding, and selective coding methods and analyzed via the continuous comparison method, based on which the qualitative model of the study was designed.Accordingly, 120 open codes were extracted from the transcribed version of the interviews, which were then organized in terms of 21 axial codes via MAXQDA software, including causal conditions (green processes, customers and other external institutions, green innovation), contextual conditions (driving forces involved in green materials supply, implementation of the waste management system, financial thoughts, and the organization’s costs), intervening conditions (environmental management approaches, green supply chain risks, green suppliers' capabilities, human resources management), phenomenon-based conditions (the improvement of environmental performance, economic factors, operational performance), strategies (management, technology, economics, policy-making), outcomes (green supply chain enablers, credit enhancement, institutionalization of technology equipment and technical knowledge, energy management and optimization).