Green Supply Chain Initiatives in China: The Roles of Nonstate Actors

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors present a novel angle to observe China’s nonstate actors in green supply chain initiatives. The chapter introduces four case cities that have established various institutional arrangements to improve its green supply chain performance. Each case reflects the dynamics of central signals and local exploration. The observation suggests that the nonstate actors at both central and local level have played critical roles in developing and managing green supply chain initiatives, which is counterintuitive when it comes to the multi-level governance process in China. We also think those experiments is a new and perhaps controversial approach for private companies to collaborate with the government on environmental affairs. We assume that such efforts could become a practical approach of bargaining and collaborating with nonstate actors globally, to better prepare the Chinese business for being involved in the rule-making process of global supply chains.