An Institutional Theoretic Investigation on the Links between
Internationalization of Chinese Manufacturers and Their Environmental Supply
Chain Management
Qinghua Zhu, Joseph Sarkis, and K-H. Lai
Resources, Conservation and Recycling,
Vol. 55, pp. 623-630, 2011.
Increased market
internationalization with more and stricter environmental regulations in
different countries has caused manufacturers to extend their environmental
practices to cover their supply chain partners. Thus, environmental supply chain
management (ESCM) has become an important competitive and
environmental strategy for manufacturers to pursue. China, as a global manufacturer, is
also facing this balance of economic development with environmental protection.
The literature remains unclear on whether internationalization is beneficial or
costly when it comes to environmental
management
practices such as ESCM within China.
Further insight into this issue will be useful for organizations in
developing and emergent economies to more effectively prepare for
internationalizing their operations and markets. Using internationalization
drivers that propel the implementation of environmental management practices in
the Chinese manufacturing industry, we applied cluster analysis to group a
sample of 377 Chinese manufacturers surveyed in 2007 into three clusters: mature
internationalization, emergent internationalization, and domestic-focused.
Institutional theory within an internationalization context sets the theoretical
foundation for evidence that the international environmentally-oriented
institutional drivers encountered are positively associated with the adoption of
ESCM practices by Chinese manufacturers. We also find
significant differences in the environmental, economic and operational
performance outcomes across the three manufacturer clusters. We conclude that
manufacturing organizations experiencing internationalization with a
greater extent of adopting ESCM practices tend to perform better.
Keywords: Environment, Supply Chain, Green Supply Chain Management,
Institutional Theory, Internationalization, Sustainability
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