The impact of shipping practitioners’ low-carbon transition cognition on corporate green practices: a moderated mediation model

With the incorporation of the shipping industry’s 2050 net-zero emissions target into the global agenda in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2023 Strategy, the industry’s low-carbon transition has moved from policy advocacy to a phase of mandatory implementation. Against this backdrop, the achievement of macro-level emission reduction goals urgently requires support from micro-level individual cognition and behavior. From a micro-level perspective, this study explores the mechanism through which shipping practitioners’ low-carbon transition cognition (LCTC) relates to perceived corporate green practices. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Social Information Processing Theory (SIPT), the study constructed and validated a moderated serial mediation model. Based on a questionnaire survey of 416 shipping industry professionals, the results indicate that low-carbon transition cognition is positively associated with corporate green practices (CGP) both directly and indirectly through the serial mediation of green behavioral intention (GBI) and green organizational citizenship behavior (GOCB). Furthermore, professional identity and policy cognition positively moderate the relationship between low-carbon transition cognition and green behavioral intention, while perceived organizational support strengthens the positive effect of green organizational citizenship behavior on corporate green practices. This study presents microlevel psychological and behavioral mechanisms associated with the green transformation within industry-mandated emission reduction frameworks and provides evidence for policy makers and corporate managers to activate the “human factor” and advance green practices integrating compliance with innovation.