Purpose

Prior research on supply chain management has advanced substantially our understanding of how suppliers’ knowledge affects manufacturers’ green innovation. However, overlooking the suppliers’ diverse green knowledge in supplier networks, namely, green knowledge diversity, has limited our understanding of both supply chain management and green innovation development. To address this important issue, this study aims to rely on social network theory as the overarching framework and knowledge-based view as the underlying theoretical foundation to examine how green knowledge diversity contributes to manufacturers’ green innovation performance, while considering three types of supplier network properties (network strength, network heterogeneity and network density).

Design/methodology/approach

This study collects both survey and secondary proxy data from 209 manufacturing firms over three time periods (mid-2018, mid-2019 and mid-2020). PROCESS macro is applied to test the research hypotheses.

Findings

The results provide compelling evidence that green knowledge management processes partially mediate the effect of green knowledge diversity on manufacturers’ green innovation performance. The effect of green knowledge diversity is strengthened by supplier network strength and supplier network heterogeneity, but hindered by supplier network density.

Practical implications

This study provides a practical guide to help manufacturers enhance green innovation performance by properly managing and leveraging their suppliers’ diverse green knowledge domains in supplier networks.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the supply chain management and green innovation literature by offering novel theoretical and empirical insights into how manufacturers can use their supplier networks to strengthen green innovation.

中文翻译：

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制造商的绿色创新如何从供应商网络中受益？

目的

先前对供应链管理的研究大大加深了我们对供应商知识如何影响制造商绿色创新的理解。然而，忽视供应商网络中供应商的多样化绿色知识，即绿色知识的多样性，限制了我们对供应链管理和绿色创新发展的理解。为了解决这一重要问题，本研究旨在以社会网络理论为总体框架，以知识为基础的观点为基础理论基础，研究绿色知识多样性如何促进制造商的绿色创新绩效，同时考虑三种类型的供应商网络属性（网络强度、网络异质性和网络密度）。

设计/方法/方法

本研究在三个时间段（2018 年年中、2019 年年中和 2020 年年中）收集了 209 家制造公司的调查和二级代理数据。PROCESS宏用于检验研究假设。

发现

结果提供了令人信服的证据，表明绿色知识管理过程部分地调节了绿色知识多样性对制造商绿色创新绩效的影响。供应商网络强度和供应商网络异质性增强了绿色知识多样性的效果，但受到供应商网络密度的阻碍。

实际影响

本研究提供了一个实用指南，可帮助制造商通过在供应商网络中正确管理和利用其供应商的多样化绿色知识领域来提高绿色创新绩效。

原创性/价值

本研究通过对制造商如何利用其供应商网络加强绿色创新提供新颖的理论和实证见解，为供应链管理和绿色创新文献做出贡献。