Enhancing carbon neutral supply chain performance: can green logistics and pressure from supply chain stakeholders make any differences?

Purpose With limited empirical evidence, prior studies have proposed that green practices can be leveraged to enhance carbon neutrality. This study draws on the contingent natural resource-based view (NRBV) to theorize and validate how pressure from supply chain (SC) stakeholders could amplify the effect of green logistics practices (GLPs) on carbon-neutral supply chain performance (CNSCP) among firms in developing countries. Specifically, this study contends that high levels of supply chain pressures (SCPs) (customers and suppliers) amplify the influence of GLPs on CNSCP. Design/methodology/approach An integrated model was tested using survey data gathered from 208 managers of logistics firms in Ghana. SPSS 23 and structural equation modeling were used for the data analyses. Findings Findings showed that all five dimensions of GLPs (transportation, warehousing, packaging and distribution, logistics information sharing and sustainable waste management) significantly enhance CNSCP. This study also found varying interactive effects of SCPs (customers and suppliers) on the link between GLPs (green transportation, green packaging and distribution) and CNSCP, such that different practices exert varying interactive effects at varying levels of SCPs. Practical implications This study offers fresh insights into how managers can leverage GLPs to achieve enhanced benefits in the form of CNSCP. The outcome of this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the GLPs-CNSCP link while shedding light on how firms can manage SCP to drive enhanced carbon-neutral performance through GLPs. Social implications This study contributes to policymakers in enhancing the decarbonization of global SCs through sustainable logistics practices. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to theorize and empirically validate the influence of GLPs on CNSCP. This study identified five practices and demonstrated how these practices uniquely drive CNSCP, as opposed to previous studies that examined GLPs from a one-dimensional perspective. This study also expands the borders of sustainable logistics literature by theorizing and empirically validating SCPs (customers and suppliers) as necessary conditions to amplify the benefits of GLPs. In essence, the novelty of the present study lies in the integration of NRBV and stakeholder theories to unearth the mechanism for optimizing the GLP-CNSCP relationship, which is rare in the sustainable logistics literature.