ICT Utilization in Supply Chain Environmental Collaboration Practices as the Moderator of Firms’ Financial Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to verify whether increasing the intensity of ICT utilization in environmental collaboration practices (ECPs) in the supply chain has a positive impact on firms’ financial performance (FP). As such, it answers the call for investigating the moderators of firms’ FP in their environmental supply chain management. The paper presents the results of a study conducted among 500 firms located in Poland with the use of the CATI technique. The research results show that increasing the intensity of ICT utilization in ECPs, in most cases, does not affect the firms’ FP. Statistically significant relations were observed only in green design ECPs, which shows that increasing the intensity of ICT utilization in green design ECPs reduces the likelihood of revenue growth thanks to ECPs implementation. The paper fills a research gap in the moderating role of the intensity of ICT utilization in increasing financial benefits thanks to the implementation of ECPs in the supply chain. As such, it contributes to the environmental supply chain management literature. The results highlight the need for further research on the moderators of firms’ financial benefits from ECPs implementation, which should be studies in isolation but also jointly, to verify their combined effect. Also, the character of different ECPs categories should be studied to link them with the most appropriate ICT.