Green supply chain management practices and firm performance through the direct and moderating roles of supply chain ecocentricity among manufacturing firms in Hawassa City, Ethiopia

Growing environmental “pressures and increasing stakeholder expectations have intensified the need for firms to integrate sustainability into supply chain management. Although Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices are widely recognized as drivers of organizational performance, empirical evidence remains inconsistent, particularly in developing economies. Grounded in the Natural Resource-Based View and Stakeholder Theory, this study examines the effects of Green Supply Chain Management practices on firm performance while investigating the dual role of Supply Chain ecocentricity as both a direct determinant of firm performance and a moderating mechanism that influences the relationships between GSCM practices and firm performance. Survey data were collected from manufacturing firms in Hawassa City, Ethiopia, and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that green manufacturing and green distribution practices significantly improve firm performance, whereas green reverse logistics has a weaker but significant positive effect. In contrast, green procurement exhibits a significant negative association with firm performance. The findings further demonstrate that Supply Chain ecocentricity directly enhances firm performance and strengthens the performance effects of Green Supply Chain Management practices by reinforcing the effectiveness of environmentally oriented supply chain initiatives. These findings underscore the strategic importance of embedding ecological values within supply chain decision-making and extend the Natural Resource-Based View and Stakeholder Theory by demonstrating the dual role of Supply Chain ecocentricity as both a strategic organizational capability and a contextual mechanism that enhances the performance benefits of Green Supply Chain Management” practices in a developing-country context.