Green operations and the moderating role of environmental management capability of suppliers on manufacturing firm performance

The increased pollution arising from different stages of producing, distributing, and disposing of electronics products highlights the importance of green operations (GO) in terms of process and product stewardship to mitigate environmental damages and satisfy the escalating social expectation for environmentally friendly operations in the electronics industry. Drawing on the natural-resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to examine the boundary spanning role of GO and investigate the influence of environmental management capability (EMC) of suppliers on firm performance and pollution reduction. The findings from a survey of 122 manufacturing firms indicate that the success of GO is contingent on the EMC of suppliers. In addition, we found that process stewardship has a positive influence on performance outcomes and that the EMC of suppliers moderates the relationship between process stewardship and financial performance. These findings indicate that manufacturers should emphasize the EMC of suppliers in their GO to reap financial as well as environmental benefits. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.