Process innovation through industry 4.0 technologies, lean practices and green supply chains

Pietro De Giovanni and Alfio Cariola

Research in Transportation Economics, 2021, vol. 90, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of a process innovation strategy that firms implement through Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies on lean practices and green supply chains. It analyses whether process innovation can be used as a lever to strengthen the relationships among Leanness, Green Supply Chain Management and Performance. The results reveal that Leanness facilitates the supplier collaboration on environmental programs and positively contributes to environmental and operational performance. In contrast, it exerts a positive second order effect on economic performance, which should then be pursued as a long term target. A process innovation strategy based on I4.0 technologies improves the effect of Leanness on operational performance, which also leads to higher economic outcomes. Nevertheless, firms can gain higher performance either by collaborating with suppliers on environmental programs or by investing in I4.0 technologies but not with both.

Keywords: Process innovation; Industry 4.0 technologies; Lean practices; Green supply chain management; Performance; Structural equation modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885920300676
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:retrec:v:90:y:2021:i:c:s0739885920300676

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_2&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.retrec.2020.100869

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Transportation Economics is currently edited by M. Dresner

More articles in Research in Transportation Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().