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This study aims to explain why some firms improve their performance through the adoption of green operational practices (GOPs) while others do not. Researchers attribute this phenomenon to that some resources are necessary to capture the benefits of GOPs. Drawing upon relevant literature and the resource‐based view, this study identifies strategic flexibility and organizational slack as two potential resources that enable firms to improve their performance through GOPs adoption. In other words, this study examines the moderating effects of strategic flexibility and organizational slack on the relationship between GOPs adoption and firm performance (including environmental and financial performance). Based on the data from 213 Chinese manufacturing firms, hierarchical regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The results show that GOPs adoption positively influences environmental and financial performance. Moreover, we find that strategic flexibility strengthens the relationship between GOPs adoption and environmental performance, but weakens the relationship between GOPs adoption and financial performance. Conversely, organizational slack strengthens the relationship between GOPs adoption and financial performance, but weakens the relationship between GOPs adoption and environmental performance. This study contributes to related literature and its findings provide new insights for managers and the government to manage the relationship between GOPs adoption and firm performance.

PurposeThis paper investigates how the configuration of a supplier’s sustainable operations practices (SOPs) with a high sustainable performance affects a buyer’s organizational performance in the buyer-supplier dyad.Design/methodology/approachThis study first identifies the key SOPs using bibliometric and content analyses. Then, the research hypotheses are proposed using complexity theory and the resource-based view. This study applies fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 74 buyer-supplier dyads in China to explore the configurations of a supplier’s SOPs that may attain a high sustainable performance. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to test the effects of these configurations on a buyer’s financial and operational performance.FindingsThe empirical findings inform that six configurations of a supplier’s key SOPs lead to a high sustainable performance, and are linked to a buyer’s operational and financial performance. A buyer’s financial performance is highest when its supplier adopts a combination of SOPs corresponding to the defensive, accommodative, and proactive sustainability strategies. A buyer’s operational performance is relatively high when its supplier adopts a combination of SOPs corresponding to the defensive and accommodative sustainability strategies.Originality/valueThis study is the first to draw on complexity theory and the resource-based view as complementary frameworks to analyze how the configuration of a supplier’s SOPs with a high sustainable performance affects a buyer’s organizational performance in the buyer-supplier dyad.