Achieving the environmental profits of green supplier integration: The roles of supply chain resilience and knowledge combination

Most previous studies have focused on the direct impact of green supplier integration on environmental performance, and treated this relationship as a “black box.” To address this research gap, this study explores how green supplier integration affects environmental performance via supply chain resilience, and the moderating role of knowledge combination on the link between green supplier integration and supply chain resilience. Drawing on natural resource-based view and knowledge-based view, we develop four hypotheses and examine these hypotheses using two-waved data from 206 Chinese manufacturing firms. We find that green supplier integration has positive effects on both proactive dimension and reactive dimension of supply chain resilience. Proactive dimension and reactive dimension of supply chain resilience partially mediate the link between green supplier integration and environmental performance. In addition, knowledge combination strengthens the positive impact of green supplier integration on reactive dimension of supply chain resilience. These findings suggest that supply chain resilience and knowledge combination cannot be overlooked when firms expect to gain environmental profits by conducting green supplier integration.