Synergistic or Antagonistic? The Contingent Impact of E-Linkage on Organizational Support and Green Practices in SMEs’ Supply Chains

As a global manufacturing leader, China faces significant challenges in implementing green supply chain management (GSCM) to mitigate environmental impacts. This study proposes a holistic framework integrating management support, financial support, and supply chain e-linkage to examine their effects on green supply chain (GSC) practices among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China’s key manufacturing regions. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed 211 valid responses collected in two phases from 2022 to 2023, assessing the relationship between organizational support and GSC practices, as well as the contingent effects of e-linkage. The findings indicate that management support consistently strengthens supplier, internal, and customer green practices, while financial support significantly facilitates GSC implementation—underscoring that while managerial commitment is essential, it cannot substitute for targeted capital investment. Drawing on resource dependence theory, we caution firms to heed the dual nature of supply chain e-linkage: while it generates synergistic benefits through enhanced resource integration, it also poses risks by enabling adversarial tactics and power imbalances, especially in interactions with supply chain partners.