Supply chain ESG and green innovation at midstream firms: An integrated approach with both supplier and buyer sides

Zhongxin Gan and Nurmukhammad Yusupov

Research in International Business and Finance, 2025, vol. 78, issue C

Abstract: We conducted an empirical analysis of the impact of supply chain ESG on corporate green innovation, adopting an integrated approach that considers the ESG scores of both suppliers and buyers. Using firm-level data from China for the period 2009–2022, our results indicate that higher supply chain ESG scores significantly promote green innovation in midstream companies. Disaggregating the ESG performance shows that both suppliers’ and customers’ ESG performance have a significant impact. Mechanism analysis shows that better ESG helps to alleviate financing constraints, improve supply chain efficiency, and stabilize supply-demand relationships. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that high supply chain concentration and shorter distances enhance the positive impact. Furthermore, the environmental and social pillars have a stronger influence on green innovation than the governance pillar, and better ESG performance increases joint green innovation. These findings highlight the importance of considering both sides of the supply chain and adopting a holistic ESG management approach to maximize the potential for green innovation.

Keywords: Supply chain; ESG performance; Green innovation; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0275531925002429
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:riibaf:v:78:y:2025:i:c:s0275531925002429

DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102986

Access Statistics for this article

Research in International Business and Finance is currently edited by T. Lagoarde Segot

More articles in Research in International Business and Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().