Embracing green innovation via green supply chain learning: The moderating role of green technology turbulence

Abstract With the increasingly serious environmental contamination and growingly stringent regulatory pressures, firms should embrace green innovation by learning from their supply chain partners. Although green supply chain learning has been suggested to be a crucial approach for enhancing innovative capability, whether and under what conditions it affects green innovation is still unclear. This study investigates the influence of two dimensions of green supply chain learning (i.e., green supplier and customer learning) on two types of green innovation (i.e., green product and process innovation) and the moderating role of green technology turbulence. Survey data collected from 249 Chinese firms were used to test research hypotheses. The findings show that both green supplier and customer learning positively influence green product and process innovation. However, green technology turbulence moderates these relationships differently. Specifically, green technology turbulence strengthens the impacts of green customer learning on green product and process innovation, while weakens the impact of green supplier learning on green process innovation. The moderating effect of green technology turbulence on the link between green supplier learning and green product innovation is insignificant. These results highlight the importance of learning from supply chain partners for sustainable development and firms' agility in adapting to external technological conditions in implementing their environmental practices.