Embracing green innovation via green supply chain learning: The moderating role of green technology turbulence

Abstract

With the increasingly serious environmental contamination and growingly stringent regulatory pressures, firms should embrace green innovation by learning from their supply chain partners. Although green supply chain learning has been suggested to be a crucial approach for enhancing innovative capability, whether and under what conditions it affects green innovation is still unclear. This study investigates the influence of two dimensions of green supply chain learning (i.e., green supplier and customer learning) on two types of green innovation (i.e., green product and process innovation) and the moderating role of green technology turbulence. Survey data collected from 249 Chinese firms were used to test research hypotheses. The findings show that both green supplier and customer learning positively influence green product and process innovation. However, green technology turbulence moderates these relationships differently. Specifically, green technology turbulence strengthens the impacts of green customer learning on green product and process innovation, while weakens the impact of green supplier learning on green process innovation. The moderating effect of green technology turbulence on the link between green supplier learning and green product innovation is insignificant. These results highlight the importance of learning from supply chain partners for sustainable development and firms' agility in adapting to external technological conditions in implementing their environmental practices.

How to convert green supply chain integration efforts into green innovation: A perspective of knowledge‐based view

“…Despite the importance of knowledge creation, its role in the relationship between green supply chain management and green innovation seems to be neglected (Blome, Schoenherr, & Eckstein, 2014;Wei et al, 2020). Because of the complicated nature of green innovation, manufacturing firms often need to engage in environmental collaboration with supply chain partners to acquire and create knowledge (Du et al, 2018;Zhao et al, 2018).…”

“…Green innovation is a widely adopted approach by firms to reduce emissions of hazardous wastes (Albort-Morant, Leal-Millán, & Cepeda-Carrión, 2016;Du, Zhang, & Feng, 2018;Wu, 2013;Zhao, Feng, & Shi, 2018). However, resources across organizational/functional boundaries are required to conduct green innovation effectively (Chen & Hung, 2014; Feng, Wang, Lawton, & Luo, 2019; Wei, Zhu, & Yuan, 2020;Wu, 2013). To access these resources, firms should shift to a paradigm of green supply chain integration (GSCI) via collaborating with various supply chain partners (Feng, Jiang, & Xu, 2020;Wang, Feng, Zhao, & Song, 2018;Yang, Geng, & Feng, 2020;Zhou, Xia, Feng, Jiang, & He, 2019).…”

Enhancing quality and innovation performance: the role of supplier communication and knowledge development

“…In dynamic markets were characterised by many substitutes, fluctuating demand and rapid change, investments on supplier communication could enhance supplier knowledge development, which can absorb the fluctuations and market changes (Spalanzani & Samuel, 2007). When suppliers possess high levels of expertise or knowledge, the buyers (manufacturers) often try to exploit this by initiating a close collaboration (Ragatz et al, 2002) to reduce the level of uncertainty and also learning from supplier collaboration practices (Berghman et al, 2012;Lisi et al, 2020). These findings enhance the important role of knowledge management in the supplier-buyer relationship, especially when the market is fluctuating (Revilla & Villena, 2012).…”

Bridging the Sustainability Leadership Chasm: A Case Study of the Sustainability Advantage Program of the NSW Government, Australia

“…Firms have recognised the importance of collaboration across entire supply chain operations to advance sustainability goals [3,4,7]. In practice, the development of SSC is often encapsulated within green supply chain integration [8,9,10]. Green supply chain integration addresses the need for a holistic perspective of processes, with an emphasis on the role of buyer-supplier relationships [3,11,12].…”

“…Secondly, dynamic capability literature is typically viewed from the perspective of a single organisation and not at a broader ecosystem level. However, few firms are able to enact sustainability initiatives using their own information, knowledge and resources [10].…”