Influence of Responsible Supply Chain Management Behaviours and Environmental Performance among Pharmaceutical Companies in China

Responsible supply chain management (RSCM) as a growing sub-field of supply chain management (SCM) has gathered increasing consideration from both practitioners and academics for the past two decades. Even though manufacturing firms have implemented RSCM behaviors through this period, there exist, some concerns as to whether these RSCM behaviors are being applied for the effect they have on environmental performance. In recent times, various debates have been opened concerning this RSCM paradox, throwing doubt on whether an investment in the implementation of RSCM behaviors certainly comes with a corresponding environmental performance outcome and, therefore, the commercial benefits of responsibility management in the context of SCM remain open for interrogation. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of responsible supply chain management behaviors on environmental performance among pharmaceutical companies in China. In addition, investigate the intervening roles of process innovation and supply chain integration as mediating and moderating constructs respectively. The research hypothesis were formulated following an extensive study of relevant literature and were based on resource and capability-based theories such as the resource based view, the natural resource based view and the stakeholder theories. The design of the study was explanatory with a confirmatory reach, applied to 123 Chinese pharmaceutical firms selected across, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces. The proposed theoretical model was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The empirical findings of the study confirmed that an effective application of RSCM behaviors, process innovation(PI), and supply chain integration(SCI) initiatives positively and significantly improves environmental performance outcomes. This confirms the position of extant literature that there is a positive relationship between RSCM behaviors’ and environmental performance. It also validated the position that process innovation and supply chain integration positively mediates and moderates respectively the relationship between RSCM and environmental performance. Therefore, the findings herein can be considered as complementary to the existing body of knowledge in the field. The practical implications derived from this study will contribute to sustainable development and expand knowledge both in industry and in academia