Environment-related technical barriers to trade (E-TBTs) are emerging technical trade measures aimed at environmental and low-carbon objectives, covering technical regulations, product standards and conformity assessment procedures, which reshape firms' resource constraints along the supply chain. Based on resource dependence theory (RDT), this study investigates the impact of E-TBTs on firms' supply chain configuration, as well as the moderating role of firms' internal resources in this relationship.
Using data from multiple databases, we construct a panel dataset of 18,399 firm-year observations from 1,795 Chinese listed firms over the period 2009–2023. We then use high-dimensional fixed-effects models to test our hypotheses.
This study finds that E-TBTs have a positive effect on firms' customer concentration and a negative effect on their supplier concentration. Furthermore, we find that the positive effect of E-TBTs on customer concentration decreases, and the negative effect on supplier concentration increases for firms with higher levels of operational slack and high-skilled labor. However, financial slack exhibits no significant moderating effect.
This study offers granular insights into the asymmetric supply chain adjustment of Chinese firms in response to E-TBTs, recommending that firms mitigate dependency risk and promote strategic autonomy in supply chain configuration by utilizing internal resources.
