Green information system integration for environmental performance in organizations: An extension of belief–action–outcome framework and natural resource-based view theory

Advancing circular economy in the equipment manufacturing sector: The role of environmental management systems, innovation and policy support

Despite the growing recognition of the benefits of circular economy, there is still a gap regarding the comprehensive assessment of the antecedent factors of circular economy adoption in the equipment manufacturing sector. This sector holds an important position in the industrial sustainability due to its crucial role in producing equipment for other industries, which makes this sector resource intensive and characterized by long product life cycles and a complex supply chain. There is very limited research that has focused on exploring the role of environmental management systems, innovation, and policy support in advancing circular economy adoption. We believe exploring these factors as antecedent factors of the circular economy can uncover critical insights in the broader industrial ecosystem's transition toward sustainability. Similarly, this study aims to investigate the role of environmental management systems, green process innovation, policy support and organizational commitment to sustainability in driving the circular economy forward in the equipment manufacturing sector. The study used primary data, collected through a survey method from managerial level employees working in the equipment manufacturing sector of China. We employed structural equation modelling in AMOS with bootstrap methodology. We used 6000 resamples with 90 percent confidence interval in the bootstrap method. The findings revealed that environmental management system is crucial for driving the circular economy forward. It directly influences the adoption of circular economy, and it indirectly influences via organizational commitment to sustainability and green process innovation. The direct role of policy support in driving the circular economy was not significant. However, the indirect role via green process innovation has been found positive, indicating that a policy support that motivates organizations for green process innovation will bring fruitful results for circular economy adoption. Additionally, the role of policy support for promoting organizational commitment to sustainability was also not significant. We believe that our study is novel as it explored the complex interplay of internal and external organizational factors influencing the circular economy which provides key insights for policy making.

Advancing eco-excellence: Integrating stakeholders' pressures, environmental awareness, and ethics for green innovation and performance

The environment is a major issue for both society and industry. Stakeholder demands, environmental ethics and environmental awareness may all have a substantial impact on a company's environmental performance. In this research, we investigate the impact of stakeholders' pressures, environmental ethics, and environmental awareness on environmental performance, which is mediated through the concept of green innovation. A survey questionnaire is used in the study to gather information from 410 managers working in different Chinese manufacturing firms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to assess the data and test the assumptions that have been put forward. According to the study's results, stakeholders' pressures in terms of regulatory pressures, customer pressures, and competitor pressures; environmental ethics, and environmental awareness all had a positive effect on both green product innovation and green process innovation, which in turn had a favorable impact on environmental performance. Moreover, both green product and process innovation partially mediated the link between stakeholders' pressures, environmental ethics, and environmental performance except in the case of environmental awareness. These findings provide light on the significance of stakeholder demands, environmental ethics, and environmental awareness in encouraging green innovation and increasing environmental performance.

Investigating the nexus between information technology capabilities, knowledge management, and green product innovation: evidence from SME industry

The aim of this study to investigate the relationship between information technology capabilities (ITCs) and green product innovation (GPI). The information technology (IT) capabilities with multiple dimensions, such as IT competence, IT integration, and IT infrastructure, were used in this paper. Moreover, to verify the deep relationship between ITCs and GPI, we used knowledge management (KM) as a mediator. The data were collected through a questionnaire from the senior managers, middle-level managers, and operational staff associated with the small- and medium-sized production industry of Pakistan. We collect data in two waves between January 2022 and July 2022. The data were analyzed through the partial least square structural equation modeling through SmartPLS 3.2.2. The findings of this study conclude. First, in the direct relationship, two IT capabilities, such as IT competence and IT infrastructure, have a positive and significant direct relationship with green product innovation, but IT integration has an insignificant relationship with green product innovation. Second, the results show that three IT capabilities have positively influenced knowledge management. Third, the results confirm that KM has a significant positive effect on GPI. Finally, the outcomes confirmed that knowledge management positively and significantly mediates between all IT capabilities and GPI in the indirect relationship.

Extending the use of the Belief Action Outcome model during COVID-19 pandemic: Technology access review on locational disparities and inequalities for knowledge workers

Remote working has played an increasingly important role in accelerating alternative workplaces. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic emergency demands, this paper seek to demonstrate the resilience of knowledge workers and their ability to work remotely, despite the uneven distribution of enabling infrastructure during the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The Belief Action Outcome (BAO) model for information systems was used to support the study as this underexplored theory was found to be worthy of further testing in real-world situations. This qualitative study used a range of sources consisting largely of search data from major online journal databases. The findings highlight that knowledge workers can successfully work from alternative workplaces and still deliver the required outputs, despite socio-economic problems such as locational disparities and inequalities in access to technology. The same technologies that empowered knowledge workers to transform their work locations during the COVID-19 crisis, however, are the same to enable certain sectors of society whilst hindering other cohorts residing in under resourced locations. Therefore, the benefits of working remotely cannot favour everyone because of the existing inequalities and disparities. Applying the BAO model in this context implies environmental issues are likely to play a growing important role in future when decisions are made around alternative workplace and adoption of IS/IT systems. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted working patterns and accelerated the trend towards working in alternative workplaces than the traditional office/factory premises, there are notable implications around this shift. The study confirmed the related behaviours, opportunities, and barriers (social systems and organisations), as well as the structures (both societal and organisational) of the BAO model. In addition, certain aspects of both the remote workers’ and organisations’ adoption behaviour were changed to a greater extent and more rapidly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a contribution, this qualitative study reveals in more detail the yet uncharted remote workers' beliefs.

What drives employee's involvement in corporate volunteering? Bright and dark side of consequences to organization

Purpose

This study assesses the relevance of both individual and contextual factors as an antecedent to employee participation in corporate volunteering (CV) activities and affective organizational commitment and inter-role conflict as an outcome of employee volunteering. This study draws from the functional theory of motivation, social exchange theory and role strain perspective to explain hypothesized relationship of the study constructs.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire survey was administered with 461 employee volunteers who had participated in company-sponsored volunteering programs. The authors adopted structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the study hypotheses.

Findings

The findings from the survey suggest that altruistic motives and organization CV capability will impact employee's participation in CV. The results highlight that employee participation in CV enhances affective organizational commitment, indicating that employee volunteering creates inter-role conflict.

Research limitations/implications

Though the study has identified inter-role conflict as a potentially unfavorable outcome, exploring when and how employee volunteering will create a negative effect will add significant value to organizations to protect the interest of their employees.

Practical implications

This study provides insights to understand the relative effects of self- and other-oriented motives. The results suggest that organizations have more directed and carefully designed employee volunteering activities to enable more favorable benefits to employees.

Originality/value

This study contributes to expanding the knowledge on the phenomenon of employee volunteering by introducing and empirically validating an integrated framework of antecedents and consequences of employee volunteering.

How does green intellectual capital affect environmental performance? Evidence from manufacturing firms in Ghana

Purpose

Industrialization has contributed to global environmental problems, especially in developed countries, but increasingly so in developing ones as well. Leveraging on the natural resource-based view theory, this study aims to examine the mediating role of environmental consciousness (EC) on the relationship between green intellectual capital (IC) and environmental performance among manufacturing firms in Ghana against a backdrop of increasing national drive towards greater industrialization.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a cross-sectional survey design to obtain data from 245 manufacturing firms using purposive sampling technique. Structural equation modelling was used to test for the hypothesized relationships among variables.

Findings

Evidence suggests that green IC has a significantly positive effect on environmental performance. Furthermore, it was found that green IC has a positive and significant effect on EC, but EC only mediated the relationship between green IC and environmental performance.

Practical implications

Manufacturing firms within emerging economies like Ghana can improve on their green practices by incorporating these findings in their business models, while research could be guided to focus their inquiries on this and related genre of scholarly work.

Originality/value

This study is an early-stage study to identify EC as a variable which mediates the relationship between green IC and environmental performance among manufacturing firms in an emerging economy like Ghana.

Decoupling Institutional Pressure on Green Supply Chain Management Efforts to Boost Organizational Performance: Moderating Impact of Big Data Analytics Capabilities

This paper aims to empirically examine the impact of institutional pressure on green supply chain management (GSCM) efforts and the moderating role of big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) on organizational performance. This study greatly develops a research model by integrating institutional theory, the natural resource-based view (NRBV), and dynamic capability theory to explore this relationship. This article is based on structured questionnaire data of 347 supply chain personnel. We employed structural equation modeling to verify the research hypotheses. The findings provide empirical support for institutional pressures affecting GSCM efforts and organizational performance. The results also showed that the moderating effect of BDAC positively strengthened the impact of GSCM effort on organizational performance. The findings extend and refine the existing GSCM literature, providing new insights for scholars to explore this view further. Practitioners can turn their attention to incorporating institutional pressures and advanced technologies into organizational decision-making, even in times of crisis such as Covid-19.

Behavioral intention model for green information technology adoption in Nigerian manufacturing industries

Purpose

Greenhouse effects and the need for cost savings necessitate that an organization's information technology (IT) managers design IT equipment acquisition and service provisioning policies to reduce carbon footprint and cost. Analyzing the influencing factors that influence stakeholders' attitudes toward adopting green information technology (Green-IT) is an important input in designing these policies. In essence, the research aims to investigate into the relationship between these factors and how they influence policy-makers' behavior in Nigerian manufacturing industries.

Design/methodology/approach

The study develops a model based on the norm activation model (NAM) and the theory of planned behavior (TBP) to investigate the factors that influence decision-makers' intention in adopting Green-IT. A quantitative approach using a survey method is carried out to gather opinions of IT decision-makers using a random sampling technique. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique is applied to test the structural model and measurement model.

Findings

The study's findings support the use of the behavior model for Green-IT adoption. The study's finding indicates that subjective norms, perceived behavior control (PBC), manager's attitude, personal norm (PN), awareness of adverse consequences and the ascription of responsibility (AR) positively influence intention to adopt Green-IT.

Research limitations/implications

The development and validation of the model are the study's theoretical contributions. The study reviewed the existing literature on the utilization of Green-IT to better understand the intention to adopt Green-IT in Nigeria. It added to the literature by identifying factors that can influence it as well as theoretical underpinnings that can fit the intentions of decision-makers. The scientific community and the industrial companies would have the chance to investigate how this integrated behavioral intention model promotes the use of Green-IT. The research predictors explained about 70.20% of the variance in the behavioral intention to adopt Green-IT.

Practical implications

Research offers practical implications and recommendations for top management practitioners of the manufacturing industries. Business leaders can use the results of this study to develop an effective strategic IT policy for the successful adoption of Green-IT practices for enhanced productivity. The study found that decision-makers' Green-IT attitudes had a substantial impact on their behavioral intention to adopt Green-IT. The study highlighted the importance of the top management attitude toward green products to facilitate the adoption of Green-IT practices in manufacturing industries in Nigeria. Thus, the positive and significant attitude of policy-makers is a necessary tool toward the successful adoption of Green-IT. Therefore, to foster an environmentally sustainability friendly atmosphere, Nigeria's manufacturing industries shall strive to strengthen the decision-makers' attitude toward practicing Green-IT in their respective domains. The findings showed that AR, AQ, environmental concern (EC), perceived behavior and perceived behavior are critical factors to be considered in an organization.

Social implications

According to the findings, an individual's Green-IT attitude has a substantial impact on the environment as social behavior. As a result, the positive and essential attitude of the social sector is a key tool for efficient Green-IT implementation. Nigeria's social activists must try to create awareness campaigns to boost decision-makers' attitudes toward implementing Green-IT in their various regions to develop a friendlier environment. Thus, the identified factors can be of great help to the social sector in designing and implementing successful environmental-friendly policies that could support the adoption of Green-IT practices.

Originality/value

The current research look at Green-IT adoption in manufacturing industries of West African countries. The study offers practical implications and recommendations for top management practitioners of the manufacturing industries, government policy-makers and organizations to enhance the use of Green-IT for mitigating environmental degradation. Recommendations for future research are stated as concluding remarks.

The study of sustainability as a mediator of new approaches to work and workspace usage

Purpose

Many corporates in India are constantly working to adapt new sustainable working practices that can reduce average space usage in the Indian workspace. This study aims to analyze the strategic shifts in terms of new approaches to work (NAW) adopted by information technology (IT) companies, influenced by sustainable practices that have a positive impact on the reduction in usage of brick and motor workspace and carbon footprint.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is descriptive in nature. A questionnaire survey was sent to certified ISO 41001 Indian IT companies to collect data through SurveyMonkey. Stratified sampling was used to collect a sample of 583 respondents, which was also verified using G* software. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and partial least square-structured equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the mediating effect of sustainability on NAW and reduction in usage of workspace.

Findings

The structural model results obtained through the bootstrapping technique showed that sustainability has become essential to survive in a competitive business environment while developing NAW that can reduce workspace usage. The findings of this study support the partial mediation effect (38%) of sustainability on NAW and workspace usage patterns in the Indian IT workspace.

Originality/value

This research adds value to the limited literature on the effect of NAW in the Indian IT sector and provides empirical evidence of the impact of technology-enabled NAW based on sustainable practices that can help reduce the demand for workspace.

Predictors of blended learning deployment in institutions of higher learning: theory of planned behavior perspective

Purpose

Blended learning (BL) has been increasing in popularity and demand and has developed as a common practice in institutions of higher learning. Therefore, this study develops a model to evaluate the critical predictors that determine students' acceptance and deployment of BL in institutions of higher education based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis entails data collected from 1,811 responses from an online survey questionnaire from students in Malaysian universities, colleges and polytechnics. Partial least square–structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) was employed for data analysis.

Findings

The results reveal that the attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and self-efficacy were found to influence students' intention to accept BL. Moreover, results suggest that the intention of students to accept BL approach is significantly influenced by actual BL deployment.

Research limitations/implications

Data were collected from students in universities, colleges and polytechnics only. Besides, this research is one of the limited studies that explored BL deployment in a Malaysian perspective.

Practical implications

Findings from this research not only add scientific evidence to BL literature but also provide a better understanding of the predictors that may motivate or discourage learners to deploy BL in institutions of higher learning.

Social implications

Respectively, findings from this study aid students to acquire and apply knowledge on how to effectively improve BL initiatives in learning activities.

Originality/value

This study is one of the fewer studies that investigate students' behavioral intentions toward BL deployment in Malaysia. Additionally, this study contributes to the understanding of the predictors that influence students' intention to accept and deploy BL in their respective institutions.

Examining the link among green human resource management practices, green supply chain management practices and performance

Purpose

The increasing concern for the protection of the environment through pollution prevention, conservation of resources and less usage of energy has attracted several firms to align green practices with their supply chain and human resource policies and practices. This study explores the influence of green human resource management and green supply chain management practices on operational, market, financial, social and environmental performances.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses partial least square–structural equation modeling approach to analyze the data gathered through structured questionnaires from supply chain and human resource managers in manufacturing and hospitality firms in Ghana.

Findings

It is established that green supply chain management practices play complementary partial mediating role between green human resource management and operational, market, social and environmental performances, while it plays competitive partial mediating role between green human resource management and financial performance. Subsequently, the analysis reveals that the synergy between green human resource management and green supply chain management creates the highest value in operational performance, followed by market performance, environmental performance, financial performance and social performance.

Originality/value

The study proposes and tests a conceptual model that examines the synergistic influence of green human resource management and green supply chain management on operational, market, financial, social and environmental performances.

The impact of firm size, firm age and environmental management certification on the relationship between green supply chain practices and corporate performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore if control variables have any impact on corporate performance when implementing green supply chain management practices. The research in particular examines the impact of firm size, firm age and possession of environmental management system (EMS) certification as control variables on different dimensions of the corporate performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The research design consists of a comprehensive literature review, followed by an empirical questionnaire based survey with responses of 117 participant organizations proceeded by a comprehensive statistical analysis to validate the developed theoretical framework and contribute to both practical and methodological approach. This study investigates the impact of each of these three control variables on four dimensions of corporate performance using multiple regression analysis.

Findings

The research found that there is positive relationship between firm size and environmental performance, economic performance and social performance but not with operational performance. The study also found that a certified EMS within UAE firms is having a positive impact on all four performance dimensions while firm age does not have any relationship with any of the four performance outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

The research provides guidance for supply chain managers in the UAE and other similar emerging market in order to better understand the relationship between control variables, impact and performance, on corporate outcome. The paper also describes relevant strategies that should be taken into consideration by these managers in order to build their sustainable supply chain. The research contributes to social dimensions of supply chain sustainability on how resilient green strategies are important for supply chain stakeholders during uncertain conditions so that it can respond to uncertain changes in order to contribute to corporate social responsibility. Some of the limitations of this research include the geographic coverage of the study region and other methodological limitation.

Originality/value

This research is the first of its kind in the UAE region to assess the link between firm control variables and its impact on green supply chain management practices; which are less studied in the green supply chain literature. While there might be few other studies that addressed and uncovered the relationship between implementing green supply chain management practices and corporate performance, however, no study has attempted to find out if firm size, firm age and possession of EMS would have any impact on the green supply chain practices and corporate performance relationship. The research was conducted in an emerging economy to understand the relationship better. A series of recommendations are also provided for firms interested in improving their environmental performance while implementing green supply chain practices.