The influence of green supply chain integration and environmental uncertainty on green innovation in Taiwan's IT industry

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between green supply chain integration (GSCI) and green innovation and to analyze the moderating effects of environmental uncertainty. Design/methodology/approach -A multi-dimensional approach was employed to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework which encompasses various aspects of GSCI, green innovation and environmental uncertainty. To identify the effects of GSCI and environmental uncertainty on green innovation, hierarchical moderated regression analysis was applied using questionnaire data from 211 Taiwanese, information technology (IT) manufacturers. Findings -Supplier, customer and internal integration enhance both green product and process innovations. Demand uncertainty positively moderates each GSCI-green innovation link. However, the moderating effect of technological uncertainty is insignificant.Research limitations/implications -This study conducted a cross-sectional investigation of the Taiwanese IT industry. Therefore, it lacks the advantages of a longitudinal case study and its findings cannot be generalized to other industries. Practical implications -This study argues that, to improve green innovation performance, managers should endeavor to integrate resources and capabilities within their organizations, suppliers and customers. It also suggests that managers should constantly follow demand trends in the market and maintain tight technological networks among supply chain partners. Originality/value -This study provides new insights into green supply chain management (GSCM) knowledge: theoretically creating GSCI-green innovation links with the natural-resource-based view, and empirically demonstrating that effective green innovation requires multi-dimensional GSCI. Furthermore, it develops a valid and reliable scale of environmental uncertainty for future research in GSCM, and presents the characteristics of implementing GSCI in Taiwan's IT industry.

The Influence of Green External Integration on Firm Performance: Does Firm Size Matter?

“…Although green external integration is considered to be performance-enhancing, it is questionable whether firms with different sizes can share equal benefits from green integration [1, 9,20]. As indicated by OC, large and medium firms will be more capable of integrating leading customers into their environmental activities, because customers are more willing to do business with large firms [24,25].…”

“…Green customer and supplier integration are measured by five and four items, respectively. The five items of green customer integration were developed on the basis of work by Wu [9]. The four items of green supplier integration were also adapted from Ref.…”

“…They can combine external resources and internal resource endowments to generate benefits [1, 9,22]. Thus, green external integration is likely to decrease the time-to-market of environmentally friendly products and enhance firm performance.…”

“…Thus, firms with different sizes may have different green external integration efforts and capabilities and achieve different levels of performance. Moreover, many of the widely advocated green external integration practices are based on their successful adoption by relatively large firms [9]. The applicability and feasibility of such practices for small firms is still unknown; for example, small firms may lack the resources and capabilities to implement and profit from green supplier and customer integration [15].…”

“…Previous literature has emphasized the important roles of green customer and supplier integration in providing resources and knowledge [3,4]. Thus, green external customer and supplier integration provides opportunities for firms to accelerate the pace of the introduction of environmentally friendly products [5,6], secure complementary resources and information [7], and improve performance and competitive advantages [8,9].…”