Drivers of Green Supply Chain Management Implementation in the SMEs: The Moderating Role of Environmental Uncertainty

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are critical actors in promoting environmentally sustainable supply chains, particularly in emerging economies where their collective environmental footprint is substantial. Despite growing attention to green supply chain management (GSCM), research has predominantly focused on large firms, leaving the motivational drivers shaping GSCM implementation in SMEs underexplored. Addressing this gap, the present study develops and empirically tests a motivation-based framework to examine how four organizational motives, cost, market, ethical, and legitimacy, drive the depth of GSCM implementation in SMEs. In addition, environmental uncertainty is conceptualized as a key contextual contingency moderating the effectiveness of these motives. Drawing on survey data from Vietnamese SMEs, the findings reveal that all four motives positively influence implementation depth, with ethical motives exerting the strongest effect. Furthermore, environmental uncertainty significantly amplifies these relationships. By integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and emphasizing the contingent role of environmental uncertainty, this study advances GSCM research by providing a nuanced, context-sensitive understanding of how SMEs operationalize sustainability practices in dynamic and resource-constrained environments.