Exploring environmental sustainability and green management practices: evidence from logistics service providers

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to examine management attitude and awareness towards green logistics, explores the external conditions that drive and restrict its positive behaviour, investigates the level of its adoption amongst logistics service providers (LSPs) and determines the major barriers affecting its application in the industry. Design/methodology/approach: This research investigates the key decision-making process on green logistics attitude and behaviour through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. Findings: This study explores both institutional and individual-level attitudes/awareness. Then, the driving and restraining forces and the challenges that influence the industry’s adoption of green initiatives are determined. Finally, this study constructs a framework following a behavioural driving route with interactions among green “attitude”, sustainable “subjective norms”, “behavioural control” and “external context” factors. Practical implications: Findings can enlighten the practitioners who are struggling to adopt the green or low-carbon practice and provide valuable insights and constructive advice to LSPs and their stakeholders. Social implications: Findings can draw the government and policy-makers’ attention to provide necessary financial or non-financial support for the practitioners to improve their green operations. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first attempts to adopt the hybrid theoretical lens on the green behaviour of the logistics industry. New insights are added to existing environmental management literature with a wider understanding and deeper investigation of the decision-making on green logistics in the industry. The theoretical framework in this study can offer future applications to a relevant large-scale study.