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Confucian culture, the foundation of ancient Chinese culture, has been cultivated and passed down through the ages. Its deeply held beliefs and ideals have influenced not just the composition and operations of Chinese society, but also the way enterprises handle their operations around the world. There is, however, a dearth of study on the relationship between supply chain efficiency and Confucian culture. Based on the institutional theoretical framework, this study employs a fixed effect model to examine the mechanism by which Confucian culture, an informal institutional factor, affects supply chain efficiency using data samples from non-financial listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2010 to 2021. The results show that Confucian culture can significantly reduce an enterprise's inventory turnover days, thereby effectively improving supply chain efficiency, and this conclusion is still true after a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneous analysis reveals the differences in the impact of Confucian culture on supply chain efficiency in different corporate contexts: that is, the positive impact of Confucian culture is particularly obvious for companies with weak internal controls or facing lower economic policy uncertainty. The mechanism test points out that Confucian culture promotes the efficiency of supply chains by enhancing enterprises 'profitability and reducing information asymmetry. Managers should be aware of how informal institutional factors, like Confucian culture, affect supply chain efficiency. They should also incorporate the cultural environment into management optimization to improve cooperation and trust, which will lower inventory turnover days and increase supply chain efficiency.