Both China and Iran have gone through rapid economic development over a short period of less than two decades (Geng et al., 2013, Feizpour and Mehrjardi, 2014). However, the downside to this is a host of environmental pollution problems which are now of serious public concern, particular from the Chinese perspective. In response, the Chinese and Iranian governments have developed and enacted environmental laws and policies to give more power to their environmental programmes in order to limit the impact of their manufactures׳ operations on the natural environment (Tan et al., 2014). Recognising that businesses are the principal source of investment and economic growth, and are hence key players in environmental protection (Hsu et al., 2013), Chinese and Iranian governments have instituted several green incentives to stimulate manufacturing firms to play a more voluntary role in environmental protection. Indeed, this has led to a shift from relying
solely on internal resources to depending on external resources to undertake SSCM initiatives. As environmental awareness is rapidly building in these two emerging economies, the Chinese and Iranian governments have placed further emphasis on preventive measures (Geng, 2011, Soltani et al., 2015). These measures are put in place to mitigate and minimise negative environmental impacts at source, e.g. suppliers׳ evaluation and suppliers׳ environmental certification, to intensify and reward the efforts of manufacturing firms that have sustainable production, and to ensure reasonable sustainable development by closing the loop, with a focus on remanufacturing, recycling, and disposal initiatives (Zhu et al., 2008c). Arguably, this requires strategic alliances and collaboration amongst involved supply chain member