ESG Green Spillover,Supply Chain Transmission and Corporate Green Innovation
Globally,issues such as climate change,social inequality,and governance failures are increasingly threaten-ing economic stability and sustainable development.As the fundamental units of economic activity,companies play a cru-cial role in addressing these global challenges through sustainable supply chain management.ESG elements(Environmen-tal,Social and Governance)have become key indicators for assessing corporate social responsibility and long-term devel-opment potential.With a growing understanding of ESG,companies increasingly integrate these standards into their sup-ply chain management to enhance competitive advantages,stabilize their supply chain foundations,and improve supply chain robustness and resilience.Particularly in China,the government's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals have heightened the urgency for companies to adopt green actions in supply chain management,prompting them to focus more on environmental risk prevention and control.Despite the numerous policies implemented by the Chinese government to promote the construction of green supply chains,this field is still in its early stages of development.With the upgrading of consumption and the growing demand for sustainable products,the market is compelling downstream segments of the supply chain to raise standards for envi-ronmentally friendly and green products.This shift in demand is driving upstream enterprises to transition to environmen-tally friendly production methods,creating a positive feedback loop that propels the entire industry toward green and sus-tainable development.This paper,based on 2010-2021 enterprise-customer matching data from China's A-share listed companies,delves into the transmission effects of ESG standards within the supply chain and their impact on corporate green innovation.We find that improvements in downstream enterprises'ESG performance significantly incentivize midstream enterprises to adopt green innovation measures.This incentive effect is primarily realized through strengthening the midstream enter-prises'green awareness,increasing the supply of commercial credit,and sharing green production knowledge.This paper also reveals that under specific conditions,such as when companies rely more on major customers and have consistent eq-uity characteristics,consensus on ESG and green goals is more easily achieved,thereby more effectively promoting green innovation.Additionally,in high environmental uncertainty situations,companies are more inclined to adopt"opportunity-oriented"strategies to accelerate green innovation.However,this paper also identifies the asymmetry in green spillover effects,particularly when downstream customers also serve as upstream suppliers.Issues like"supply-demand coordination costs"and"supply-demand relationship balance"may hinder the process of leveraging ESG advan-tages to promote midstream enterprises'green innovation.This paper offers several key contributions to the existing body of knowledge in supply chain management.First,we expand the scope of ESG research from a supply chain perspective,identifying the green transmission effect of ESG within the supply chain,and thus enriching the research on supply chain spillover effects.Second,we uncover the asym-metry of spillover effects and the counterbalancing role of dual identities,providing new perspectives and guidance for understanding and managing the green transmission effects of ESG within the supply chain.Finally,this paper innova-tively demonstrates the positive consequences of customer ESG advantages in driving green innovation,deepening the re-search on ESG enabling supply chain sustainability.This paper confirms that downstream enterprises'ESG advantages can positively impact carbon reduction and carbon performance by promoting midstream enterprises'green innovation ac-tivities,offering a new perspective for evaluating the actual effects of green innovation.With the rising trend of carbon emission prices in China,downstream enterprises,through their outstanding ESG performance,can incentivize more mid-stream enterprises and supply chain partners to engage in green innovation,contributing to the fight against climate change and the achievement of sustainable development goals.
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