Do Cost-Squeezed Suppliers Give Up on Green? 공급업체의 매출원가율과 계열사 여부가 친환경 활동에 미치는 영향
서한결 Han-Gyeol Seo (충북대학교, 제1저자) · 우청원 Chung-Won Woo (국립창원대학교, 교신저자) 회계와정책연구 (Review of Accounting and Policy Studies), 29(4), 215–234, 2024 · DOI: 10.21737/RAPS.2024.11.29.4.215
TL;DR — Among 1,187 Korean manufacturing suppliers, cost pressure crowds out green: a 10 percentage point higher COGS ratio cuts the likelihood of environmental activity by about 24.6%. But for suppliers inside a business group the sign flips — a 10% higher COGS ratio raises that likelihood by 19.8%. Group affiliation supplies incentives that standalone suppliers lack.
Key findings
1. Margin pressure crowds out environmental activity. The higher a supplier's cost of goods sold ratio, the less likely it undertakes environmental activity — quantified at roughly −24.6% likelihood per 10 percentage points of COGS ratio.
2. Group affiliation reverses the logic. For group-affiliated suppliers, higher COGS ratio is associated with more environmental activity (+19.8% per 10% increase) — the group appears to underwrite green effort that a standalone supplier cannot afford.
3. Robust across activity types. Similar results hold whether environmental activity is measured on an integrated, own-benefit, or user-benefit basis.
Method in one line
Negative binomial regression on 1,187 Korean manufacturing suppliers, combining the 2022 Korean Innovation Survey (manufacturing module) with the Value-Search financial database; three environmental-activity measures (integrated, own-benefit, user-benefit) as dependent variables, supplier COGS ratio as the independent variable, and business-group affiliation as moderator.
국문 요약
[연구목적] 제조업에 속하는 공급업체의 매출원가율과 친환경 활동의 관계에서 계열사 여부에 따라 어떠한 영향관계를 가지는지 실증 분석한다.
[연구방법] 과학기술정책연구원(STEPI)의 ‘2022년도 한국기업혁신조사: 제조업 부문’과 Value-Search 재무 데이터베이스를 활용해 최종 표본 1,187개 기업을 대상으로 음이항 회귀분석을 수행했다. 종속변수는 친환경 활동 수준을 반영하는 통합·자사 편익·사용자 편익 관점의 3개 변수, 독립변수는 매출원가율, 조절변수는 계열사 여부다.
[연구결과] 공급업체의 매출원가율과 친환경 활동은 음(−)의 관계를 가지며, 매출원가율이 10%p 상승할 때 친환경 활동을 수행할 가능성은 약 24.6% 감소했다. 한편 그룹계열사에 속하는 공급업체는 매출원가율이 10% 증가할 경우 친환경 활동 가능성이 19.8% 증가했다. 자사편익·사용자편익 위주의 친환경 활동 변수에서도 유사한 결과가 도출되었다.
[정책적 시사점] 상대적으로 희박하게 이루어진 공급업체 대상 실증 연구로서, 친환경 정책에 있어 계열사 여부에 따라 차별적인 유인이 제공되어 진다는 점에 시사점을 갖는다.
FAQ
Q. Why does this matter for supply chain and ESG teams? Because it identifies which suppliers will drop environmental effort first under margin pressure — standalone, high-COGS suppliers. Supplier ESG programs that ignore the cost structure of the supplier are pushing against the supplier's own economics.
Q. Why would group affiliation flip the sign? Group-affiliated suppliers face differentiated incentives — internal capital, group-level ESG mandates, and reputational spillover — that let them sustain environmental activity precisely when costs rise.
Q. Related work by the author? See Woo & Kwon (2024) on carbon regulation and firm value, and the author's earlier work on suppliers' communication capability and green integration in the Korean construction industry (Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016).
How to cite
APA: 서한결, 우청원. (2024). 공급업체의 매출원가율과 계열사 여부가 친환경 활동에 미치는 영향. 회계와정책연구, 29(4), 215–234. https://doi.org/10.21737/RAPS.2024.11.29.4.215
English: Seo, H.-G., & Woo, C.-W. (2024). The effect of suppliers' COGS ratio and affiliation on environmental activities. Review of Accounting and Policy Studies, 29(4), 215–234.
BibTeX:
@article{seo2024supplier,
title={The Effect of Suppliers' COGS Ratio and Affiliation on Environmental Activities},
author={Seo, Han-Gyeol and Woo, Chung-Won},
journal={Review of Accounting and Policy Studies},
volume={29}, number={4}, pages={215--234}, year={2024},
doi={10.21737/RAPS.2024.11.29.4.215}}