Green Supply Chains and Their Influence on the Competitiveness and Economic Performance of Companies.

Green practices of companies related to Green supply chain management should also demonstrate their positive impact on companies' performance. This paper's goal is to investigate the impact of greening the supply chain on the competitiveness and economic performance of companies in the context of forest-based industry. The study empirically examines the relations between the greening of the phases of the supply chain, related environmental performance and companies' competitiveness and economic performance. A questionnaire-based survey was performed and data collected among the 333 companies engaged in the forest-based sector in Slovakia to apply a structural equation model. The findings show that companies' greening supply chain activities, emphasized by requirements for the environmental properties of purchased products and services, contribute to the improvement in environmental performance, which ultimately leads to improving their competitiveness and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]