Unleashing the mechanism between technological and behavioural aspects of green supply chain management: An environmental sustainability agenda

Abstract

As a result of emerging climate change trends, businesses and organizations are becoming more concerned about environmental sustainability. In this context, green supply chain management (GSCM) approaches are expanding globally. Based on institutional and sociotechnical systems theory, the conceptual model of this research highlights a mediation of two GSCM types, namely technological and behavioral practices, as well as the moderation of organizational pressure on institutional performance. The hypotheses were evaluated using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method, obtaining data from 563 Chinese firms. This study's categorization of technological and behavioral GSCM practices and results add to the literature on GSCM. The empirical findings indicate that the technological GSCM practices considerably affect behavioral practices. Moreover, GSCM technological and behavioral practices have a substantial effect on institutional performance. GSCM behavioral practices mediate the link between technological GSCM practices and institutional performance. The outcomes also reveal that organizational pressure moderates the association between GSCM technological GSCM practices and institutional performance. These results show that companies in emerging economies should prioritize the behavioral GSCM practices to successfully apply the technological GSCM practices to achieve compelling financial, social, and environmental performance.