The Impact of Energy and Water Consumption on Supplier Credit Disbursement

Abstract

The 4IR is fading away to usher in Industry 5.0. Finding its bases on Industry 4.0, the 5IR emphasises sustainability and human to machine collaboration. The rationale resides in encouraging warehouses to harness new innovations given Industry 4.0 and 5IR. The researcher seeks to investigate if corporate green performance influences suppliers' support. In congruency to the quantitative nature of the study, a positivist stance was adopted to test the set hypothesis. Archival data were drawn purposively from the FTSE/JSE Responsible Investment Index to compute a short panel data set comprising 19 companies and 114 observations over a six-year period. Pearson's pairwise correlation and first differenced econometric models for Fixed effects were employed for statistical analyses. The study yielded mixed findings as energy consumption indicated a significant positive effect on supplier credit disbursement. Conversely, water consumption was found to be statistically insignificant. The results render practical implications that green warehousing calls for stakeholder support.