Paper Title
Impact of Lean Logistics on Green Supply-Chain Management, Environmental Performance, and Firm Performance

Abstract
Lean logistics is an application of lean manufacturing. Its core objective is minimizing or eliminating all non-value-added activities (in production, transportation and storage) so as to shorten the lead time and improve the service performance in response to the market and the customers’ needs. In recent years, people have been gradually confronted with environmental protection and other green problems, imposing many pressures and challenges on enterprises. To conform to international trends and become favored by investors, enterprises must reduce the cost as far as possible while developing good environmental strategies. However, researchers have rarely discussed the impact of lean logistics on green supply-chain management, environmental performance, and firm competitiveness. To fill this knowledge gap, we attempt to elucidate the relationship among these four factors by structural equation modeling. The data were collected from 162 questionnaires returned by management-level enterprise personnel in Taiwan and China. In a confirmatory factor analysis, lean logistics exerted a significantly positive effect on green supply-chain management (0.743, t = 7.067). Green supply-chain management was significantly positively correlated with environmental performance (0.572, t = 6.018) and firm competitiveness (0.662, t = 7.789). Moreover, environmental performance was significantly positively correlated with firm competitiveness (0.228, t = 3.161). Our research confirms a significant impact of lean logistics on green supply-chain management, environmental performance, and firm competitiveness. Therefore, by incorporating lean logistics into their decision-making, enterprises can effectively reduce the non-value-added activities in their logistics systems while coordinating with green supply-chain management. These simultaneous activities promote both economic and environmental development. Index Terms - Lean logistic, Green supply chain management, Environmental performance, Firm competitiveness