Bridging green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Chinese semiconductor sector: With the role of energy efficiency and green HRM

Abstract

The semiconductor sector of China, which is an essential part of the global electronics market, is experiencing significant pressure to adopt green practices. Therefore, this study examines the role of green supply chain practices such as customer environmental collaboration, green purchasing and sustainable innovation in environmental performance. By leveraging the integrated perspective of the resource based-view, natural resource-based view and ability-motivation-opportunity as a theoretical lens, the study evaluates whether green practices lead to better environmental performance. In this study, energy efficiency is explored as a mediator between green purchasing, sustainable innovation and environmental performance, revealing its part in reaping the benefits of green initiatives. Additionally, green human resource practices are assessed as a moderator to identify how supportive such practices can be to amplify the relationship between customer environmental collaboration and firm environmental performance. Leveraging a PLS-SEM methodology, the findings reveal that environmental collaboration with customers, green purchasing and sustainable innovation directly lead to superior environmental performance. The study identifies the crucial role of energy efficiency as a mediator as it helps reinforce the effectiveness of green practices. The proven role of green human resource management as a moderator underscores the need to integrate human resource management with environmental objectives. Policymakers could take guidelines from the study to develop policies related to enhancing environmental performance using effective green supply chain practices and green human resource management practices.