Aspirations and environmental performance feedback: a behavioral perspective for green supply chain management

Abstract

PurposeThis study investigates the relationships between environmental performance feedback and green supply chain management (GSCM). It explores how environmental performance above or below aspirations affects the implementation of GSCM practices (specifically sustainable production [SP] and sustainable sourcing [SS]) through the lens of the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), which has received scant attention in the operations management literature.Design/methodology/approachThe study used data from the sixth round of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS). It employed hierarchical linear regression to test the proposed hypotheses. Moreover, the study tested an alternate model to rule out the possible role of financial performance aspirations in explaining the implementation of SP and SS.FindingsThe results indicate that organizations determine their efforts put into the two GSCM practices according to environmental performance feedback: the greater the aspiration–environmental performance discrepancy, the stronger the efforts put into implementing GSCM practices.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the GSCM literature by revealing the impact of environmental performance aspirations on the implementation of GSCM practices through the lens of the BTOF. It also extends the BTOF by applying it in the GSCM context and indicating that performance feedback is based on environmental performance instead of financial performance in this specific context.

Supply chain sustainability: learning from the COVID-19 pandemic

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How Does Green Training Boost Employee Green Creativity? A Sequential Mediation Process Model

“…Second, organizations should properly appraise employees’ green creative endeavors and link this behavior to promotional opportunities, pay, and compensation to encourage and motivate employees to participate in green activities and to contribute to green management objectives. For example, monthly and/or quarterly evaluations should be made, and then, related feedback should be provided to employees, which enables employees to receive a comprehensive picture of their green-oriented performance ( Shou et al, 2020 ) and then make more efforts to behave creatively in an environmental manner. Third, managers can take responsibility to encourage employees to create a value of being green and environmental.…”

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“…SP focuses on intra-organizational efforts while SS emphasizes inter-organizational programs developed by focal manufacturing firms and their supply bases. SP involves the enhancement of technical effectiveness in quality management and the pursuit of green and lean manufacturing processes (Shou et al, 2020). In the meantime, SS propels firms to concern environmental, social and economic motives in operations simultaneously when directing their suppliers (Shou et al, 2019).…”

“…SSCM practices include an organization's intra-and inter-organizational sustainability practices, aiming to make the supply chain more sustainable (Hong et al, 2018). Many scholars have endeavored to investigate the factors that drive the firm's implementation of sustainability practices from various perspectives, such as stakeholder pressure (Linton et al, 2007; The effects of socio-technical integration Vachon and Klassen, 2008), strategic orientation (Shou et al, 2019), firm resources and capabilities (Cousins et al, 2004) and performance feedback (Shou et al, 2020).…”

“…In this study, we aim to explore intra-and inter-organizational sustainability practices, particularly sustainable production (SP) and sustainable sourcing (SS), which have been widely recognized in the SSCM literature (e.g. Golini and Gualandris, 2018;Shou et al, 2020).…”