From green organizational culture to sustainable performance: entrepreneurial and innovation pathways in emerging economy manufacturing

Purpose This study aims to investigate how green organizational culture influences sustainable performance by shaping green entrepreneurial orientation and green innovation. It further examines how corporate image, as an external stakeholder evaluation, influences sustainable performance directly and indirectly through green entrepreneurial orientation. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the natural resource-based view and stakeholder theory, this study develops and empirically tests a process model that explains how internal environmental resources and corporate image are associated with sustainability outcomes through entrepreneurial and innovation pathways. Survey data were collected from manufacturing firms in Vietnam and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results show that green organizational culture acts as a foundational environmental resource that significantly promotes green entrepreneurial orientation and green innovation, thereby contributing to sustainable performance. It also exerts a direct positive effect on sustainable performance and indirect effects through these two mechanisms. Importantly, corporate image does not directly influence sustainable performance but has a significant indirect effect through green entrepreneurial orientation. Originality/value This study advances sustainability and process management research by clarifying the entrepreneurial and innovation pathways through which environmental values are associated with sustainable performance. It also challenges the assumption that a favorable corporate image is, by itself, associated with stronger sustainable performance, showing instead that its influence operates indirectly through green entrepreneurial orientation. Together, these findings provide a more nuanced explanation of how internal environmental values and external reputational evaluations contribute through distinct pathways to sustainable performance in emerging-economy manufacturing firms.