How coopetition between domestic and multinational firms shapes carbon emissions performance in global supply chains?

Abstract

The importance of climate action, as outlined in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), has promoted firms worldwide to pursue low-carbon transitions. However, the impact of coopetition between domestic and multinational firms within supply chains on global carbon emissions performance remains unexplored. Thus, this study addresses this issue using an inter-country inter-industry Input-Output database (2000–2019) that distinguishes heterogenous firm ownership. The results show that: (1) the competition mechanism between domestic and multinational firms within global supply chains is more effective in improving global carbon emissions performance than the cooperation mechanism; (2) although the competition mechanism can enhance carbon emissions performance in developing countries, supply chains of purely multinational firms under this mechanism exacerbate the widening gap between developed and developing countries in balancing carbon emissions and value added; (3) key regions that determine the carbon emissions performance of global supply chains are significantly affected by coopetition mechanisms, whereas key economic sectors and final demands are not; and (4) coopetition mechanisms reshape the driving role of carbon intensity effect and demand structure effect on carbon emissions performance of various global supply chains, but the production structure effect remains largely unaffected.