Title: Sustainability of environmentally sound technologies using interpretive structural modelling

Authors: Abhishek Behl; Abhinav Pal

Addresses: Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Symbiosis International University, Pune, 411057, India ' Symbiosis School of Economics, Symbiosis International University, 3rd Floor, SCHC Building, Senapati Bapat Road Pune 411004, India

Abstract: Sustainable practices by organisations have contributed towards development. There is a limited contribution from individuals towards the same. This study aims at exploring the key barriers which lead to a limited contribution from individuals residing in rural areas. The limited study in the area of environmentally sound technology (EST) in rural India makes it important as the results could be generalised for a larger community. The barriers found out are diverse ranging from awareness of EST to humanitarian supply chain. The study uses interpretive structural modelling (ISM) technique to understand the barriers from the individual's perspective. The results signify that awareness and perception of individuals towards these technologies are the prime reasons of discontinuity in contributing towards a sustainable supply chain. It was also found out that trade-off between conventional technologies and EST was not balanced.

Keywords: sustainability; environment sound technology; ISM; interpretive structural modelling; rural; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2019.096702

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2019 Vol.13 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Received: 19 Dec 2015
Accepted: 28 Jul 2016
Published online: 10 Dec 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article