Chinese manufacturing has recently undertaken the responsibility of energy conservation and emission reduction to address climate change. This research analyzes green innovation on business sustainability in the energy-intensive industry in China from the manager perspective, researched data from 229 Chinese managers via structural equation modeling (SEM). The results demonstrated that green innovation had three dimensions: green product innovation, recycling, and green publicity. Business sustainability also had three dimensions: financial performance, environmental performance, and social performance. It also shows that green innovation had a significant effect on business sustainability in the energy-intensive industry. More specifically, we found that recycling has more impact on social performance when compared with green publicity. However, green publicity has a large effect on environmental performance; moreover, green product innovation has more impact on financial performance than green publicity. We also found that environmental performance has a positive effect on financial and social performance results. The alternative models were used to examine the second-order factors of green innovation and business sustainability to test the study’s robustness and supported our findings. Thus, this study contributes to the field by helping managers to make decisions when dealing with sustainable environmental management. It provides new empirical evidence to support the development of a low-carbon circular economy and realization of a carbon-neutral goal by 2060 in China.

Purpose: While the beneficial impact of supply chain integration (SCI) and modular product design are generally acknowledged, few empirical studies have examined how an organization can achieve better performance through SCI with modular product design. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between SCI and modular product design, as well as their impact on product performance.Design/methodology/approach: By surveying 251 manufacturers in Hong Kong, structural equation modelling is used to test the research constructs and the hypothesized model.Findings: The results confirm that information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination are crucial organizational processes within SCI. Companies that have high levels of product modularity appear to be good at product co‐development and organizational coordination directly and at information sharing indirectly. Furthermore, companies that have high levels of product co‐development or product modularity appear to have better product performance.Research limitations/implications: This paper theoretically and empirically identifies three specific organizational processes within SCI (information sharing, product co‐development and organizational coordination), which affect modular product design and product performance. These more specific findings were previously absent from the literature. However, the study is limited to the cross‐sectional nature of a survey study, the operationalization of SCI and product modularity, and the nature of the product types.Originality/value: This paper empirically examines the relationships between SCI and product modularity, which has seldom been attempted in previous research. It clearly identifies exactly which processes within SCI are directly and indirectly related to product modularity.