Green Purchasing by MNC Subsidiaries: The Role of Local Tailoring in the Presence of Institutional Duality

ABSTRACT To examine the essential determinants of green purchasing by multinational corporations’ (MNC) subsidiaries, this study takes institutional theory as a foundation and focuses on the institutional duality associated with localization and globalization. Specifically, we develop a model to explain subsidiaries’ green purchasing and empirically test the model with data from 141 purchasing managers and senior purchasing staff members from subsidiaries in 39 countries. Our results suggest that pressures from headquarters and the local environment do not affect subsidiaries’ green purchasing directly; rather, they exert indirect influences through local tailoring. This study contributes to extant literature by revealing the significance of local tailoring in an MNC context. In addition, our findings offer several implications for practice by providing a roadmap for disseminating green purchasing across the subsidiaries of an MNC, as well as highlighting the importance of both clear communication about the benefits of green purchasing and internal audits.