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Intellectual capital, financial resources, and green supply chain management as predictors of financial and environmental performance

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Abstract

This research examines the influence of intellectual capital on financial and environmental performance with a mediating role of green supply chain management and a moderating role of financial resources. Structural model estimation was conducted on the data set of 324 Pakistani manufacturing SMEs and showed that intellectual capital significantly encourages green supply chain management as well as significantly contributes to financial and environmental performance. Green supply chain management partially mediates the relationship between intellectual capital and performance both the financial and environmental. Financial resources significantly strengthen the relationship between intellectual capital and green supply chain management. In light of the results, we suggest that firms should encourage intellectuality among their managers and employees to adopt green practices that can improve their financial and environmental performance. In addition, it is also suggested for managers and CEOs to effectively manage financial resources that are necessary for green practices.

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Data availability

Some restrictions are applied to the data used in the results (tables and figures). Hence, it can be gained by sending a request to the email address: anwar.msfin@iiu.edu.pk.

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Acknowledgments

We thank SMEDA, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Pakistani SMEs who helped us in completing this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China

    Najib Ullah Khan & Shuangjie Li

  2. Witten Institute for Family Business, University of Witten/Herdecke, Witten, Germany

    Muhammad Anwar

  3. Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Sualeh Khattak

Authors
  1. Najib Ullah Khan
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  2. Muhammad Anwar
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  3. Shuangjie Li
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  4. Muhammad Sualeh Khattak
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Contributions

Najib Ullah Khan worked on the model and literature. Muhammad Anwar has written a theoretical framework and methodology and analyzed the data. Li Shuangjie revised the draft. Muhammad Sualeh Khattak has done the data collection and data entry.

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Correspondence to Najib Ullah Khan or Shuangjie Li.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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The ethical committee of the Hamdard Institute of Management approved the questionnaire for data collection. It was mentioned in the survey for the respondents that the survey is volunteers, rather than obligatory.

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Khan, N.U., Anwar, M., Li, S. et al. Intellectual capital, financial resources, and green supply chain management as predictors of financial and environmental performance. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 19755–19767 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12243-4

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