Digital transformation: fresh insights to implement green supply chain management, eco-technological innovation, and collaborative capability in manufacturing sector of an emerging economy

Abstract

The increasing significance of green supply chain management in developing countries’ manufacturing sector is primarily driven by the deteriorating environment, signified by decreasing raw material resources, a surplus of waste sites, and rising pollution levels. Green supply chain management can provide competitiveness while boosting a company’s environmental sustainability if implemented effectively. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the effect of green supply chain management practices on the firm performance of the manufacturing sector. This research aims to determine the moderating effect of collaborative capability and the mediating influence of eco-technological innovation and environmental strategy on the relationship between green supply chain management and firm performance. Five hundred fifty survey questionnaires are gathered from manufacturing firms of China. Utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM), the proposed hypotheses have been analyzed and investigated. The results show that green supply chain management indirectly affects the firm performance. Moreover, green supply chain management is positively related to environmental strategy and eco-technological innovation, which effectively enhance firm performance. The findings further indicate that environmental strategy and eco-technological innovation significantly mediate the association between green supply chain management and firm performance. Furthermore, collaborative capability significantly and positively moderates the relationship between green supply chain management and firm performance. As a result, the adoption of these factors influences firm performance positively and will assist the manufacturing sector in meeting diverse yet radically changing requirements and overcoming obstacles originating from a dynamic global business environment. Consequently, it is of the utmost importance that businesses must utilize green practices with relatively low environmental impacts. Companies can considerably maintain and improve their firm performance by reducing the environmental impact if they have effective collaborative capabilities, eco-technological innovation, and environmental strategies.

The Impact of Green Innovation on Corporate Performance: An Analysis Based on Substantive and Strategic Green Innovations

“…According to Afum et al [40], implementing green manufacturing helped firms improve their financial performance by redesigning their production systems to comply with strict environmental laws and regulations and gain a competitive advan-tage by producing high-quality products. Furthermore, green technology innovations can improve product quality and adaptability and reduce operating costs, which tends to improve the performance of manufacturing firms [26]. According to Hu et al [41], by distinguishing between green process innovation and green product innovation, they explored how government green subsidies indirectly affect the financial performance of firms through these two types of innovations and found that by fully utilizing green process and product innovations, firms can become more competitive and sustainable, as well as improve financial performance.…”

“…First, a large portion of the studies is based either on cross-sectional data obtained from questionnaires [15][16][17][18][19] or using panel data but only based on the consideration of the composite construction of "green innovation" [20][21][22], resulting in inconsistent findings between green innovation and corporate financial performance [14,23]. Second, most studies focus only on the single impact of green innovation on firms' financial performance [1,24,25] or on firms' comprehensive performance indicators [26,27], and the literature lacks comparative studies on the performance consequences of different dimensions of green innovation (e.g., financial performance and environmental performance) [23]. Green innovation is a complex of corporate efficiency and legitimacy.…”

The Role of Digital Transformation, Corporate Culture, and Leadership in Enhancing Corporate Sustainable Performance in the Manufacturing Sector of China

“…"Digital transformation" is influencing and shaping organizational change through digital technologies [16]. An increasing number of organizations are turning to digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics to tackle the challenges posed by a global marketplace, evolving consumer demands, emerging regulations, and talent scarcity [17]. Business executives and researchers are eagerly seeking to use the promise of these technologies, while governments are competing to incorporate them into their agendas [18,19].…”

Green Technology Innovation, Capital-Factor Allocation, and Manufacturing-Export Resilience

“…Against the background of the decline in the marginal increase in the global supply of resources, the alleviation of the ecological and environmental crisis can provide a rare historical opportunity for manufacturing exports to cope with the violent external impacts of the financial crisis, COVID-19, and so on. If we can make reasonable use of the opportunities brought about by external forces, find the direction of the development of manufacturing exports, and upgrade towards digitisation, intelligence, and greening [3][4][5][6], we can not only make the manufacturing exports have a better resistance and recovery ability in the face of shocks but to even gradually adapt to the external environment and to carry out self-renewal and orientation. To realise the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing-export growth mode towards greening, innovation and technological progress are the key factors.…”