The contingency effects of internal and external collaboration on the performance effects of green practices

Past studies separately show internal/external collaboration and different green practices can create different performance outcomes. By extending these studies, this paper hypothesizes that the performance effects of different green practices (that emphasize operations and product/market innovation) depend on the types of internal and external collaboration. The hypotheses are tested through a survey of manufacturers in China (Hong Kong) and the United Kingdom. As expected, green product design and packaging practices (emphasize innovation) create environmental and cost benefits when there are high levels of internal and external collaboration. Instead, green production, sourcing, and logistics practices (emphasize operations) create performance when the levels of internal and external collaboration are low. Only green production creates financial/market performance at a high level of stakeholder collaboration. These results show that it is important to distinguish the types of collaboration when implementing various green practices.