The Impact of Corporate Carbon Emission Reduction on Corporate Performance: The Joint Moderating Effects of Supply Chain Concentration and Supply Chain Transparency

ABSTRACT As key subjects of market economic activity, corporations should strive to maintain the balance between reducing carbon emissions and improving corporate performance to augment their contributions to the triple bottom line of sustainability (i.e., the economic, social, and environmental goals). Using microdata of 533 Chinese listed companies for 2010–2021, we draw a perspective from supply chain management and examine how corporate carbon emission reduction (CER) gives firms sustainable performance. We further extended the supply chain management and investigated the moderating roles and their joint moderating effects of supply chain concentration (SCC) and supply chain transparency (SCT). The findings revealed that the greater the intensity of corporate CER efforts, the higher the incremental increase in corporate performance. Both SCT and supplier concentration (SC) can strengthen the promoting effect of CER on the growth rate of corporate performance, while the promoting effect of CER on the growth rate of corporate performance decreases when customer concentration (CC) increases. Furthermore, if SCT and SCC are taken together to moderate a firm's carbon reduction behavior, increasing SC as SCT increases further strengthens the facilitating effect of CER on corporate performance; however, increasing CC will weaken the positive impact of corporate CER on its performance. These results reveal the prominent role of effective supply chain management practices in strengthening the promoting effect of CER on the growth rate of corporate performance. The research provides both theoretical and managerial implications for promoting a win‐win scenario for both businesses and the environment.