The influence of green external integration on firm performance: Does firm size matter?

Although the importance of green external integration has been widely recognized, our understanding of how firm size influences its link with firm performance is still limited. This study develops a conceptual framework in which firm size is proposed to moderate the relationships between green external integration, the time-to-market of environmentally friendly products and firm performance. We examine this model using data collected from 176 Chinese manufacturing companies. The results reveal that firm size moderates the relationship between green customer integration and business performance, the relationship between green supplier integration and operational performance, and the relationship between the time-to-market of environmentally friendly products and business performance. In addition, green customer and supplier integration improve both operational and business performance entirely by decreasing the time-to-market of environmentally friendly products for large firms, while green customer integration enhances operational performance entirely by shortening the time-to-market of environmentally friendly products for small and medium firms. These findings have important implications for research and practice in the fields of green supply chain integration and green innovation.