An Empirical Study On Relationships Between Supplier Selection And Performance Among Manufacturers Based On Green Purchasing

Due to resource scarcity and ecological degradation, manufacturers have experienced increasing pressure to implement environmental practices. As a systematic environmental approach, green supply chain management has emerged as an important new management innovation that helps manufacturers to improve their environmental performance. Green purchasing is one of key practices of green supply chain management; and it can improve enterprises' competitiveness by reducing costs through less consumption of toxic materials and establishing green image. Supplier selection is the first step to implement green purchasing. The implementation level of green purchasing practices can be evaluated through supplier selection indices. The previous researches indicated that green purchasing practices can improve enterprises' environmental performance. However, whether green purchasing brings positive or negative financial performance remains controversial. This dissertation aims to establish an assessment index system for supplier selection and enterprises' performance evaluation, and then further studies the effect of supplier selection on business performance. Research results provide implications to help Chinese manufacturers to realize sustainable development by green purchasing. The dissertation consists of three main parts:Firstly, a conceptual model is established based on literatures review and theoretic analysis. Twenty-seven indicators for supplier selection are developed. In order to establish a supplier assessment index system, a measurable questionnaire is developed. According to empirical results, a supplier assessment system with 5 dimensions and 27 items is identified. A case study of supplier selection is done through analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and the weights of indices are then confirmed by factor analysis.Secondly, based on the business conceptual model for sustainable development, a theoretical index system with 3 dimensions and 19 items is established for business performance evaluation. This theoretical index system is tested and confirmed by statistic analysis and a case study, which sets up the foundation to examine the relationship between supplier selection and enterprises' performance improvement.Thirdly, the relationship between supplier selection and enterprises' performance is analyzed through correlation analysis, regression analysis and cluster analysis. The main conclusions are summarized in the below. (1) The contribution rate of supply chain management factor is the largest among all indices of supplier selection for green purchasing. However, supply chain management has not gained enough attention by Chinese manufacturers. The external environmental management is important for manufacturers to improve environmental performance, and thus Chinese manufacturers should pay more attention to the effect of supplier assessment.(2) There are two different types of strategies in terms of the practices of supplier selection among Chinese manufacturers, which can be named as proactive environmental strategy and reactive environmental strategy. The proactive environmental strategy can gain higher environmental and financial performance improvement.(3) The empirical study on Chinese manufacturing enterprises reveals that green supplier selection has positive effect on operational, environmental and negative financial performance.(4) There is no significant relationship between supplier selection and positive financial performance. It is possible due to investment needed at the initial stage of environmental management. It is also one of the reasons that Chinese enterprises are unwilling to implement environmental practices.(5) Firm size has significant negative effect on operational performance, which may result from difficulty for enough communication among departments of larger enterprises.(6) The effects of eco-design and supply chain management on environmental performance are the most significant, followed by environmental certification and external environmental management.(7) The proactive practices such as eco-design have higher effect on environmental performance than reactive practices. The same conclusion can be gained for operational performance.