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

Yongyi Shou (School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China)
Shuo Shan (School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China) (Department of Marketing, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong)
Anlan Chen (Business School, University of Greenwich, London, UK)
Yang Cheng (Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark) (School of Business Administration, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China)
Harry Boer (Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark) (Department of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary)

International Journal of Operations & Production Management

ISSN: 0144-3577

Article publication date: 2 September 2020

Issue publication date: 21 September 2020

1579

Abstract

Purpose

This 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/approach

The 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.

Findings

The 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/value

This 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.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 71821002, Jiangxi “Double Thousand Plan”, and Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research (SDC).

Citation

Shou, Y., Shan, S., Chen, A., Cheng, Y. and Boer, H. (2020), "Aspirations and environmental performance feedback: a behavioral perspective for green supply chain management", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 40 No. 6, pp. 729-751. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-11-2019-0756

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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