How leadership styles affect green supply chain management and innovation: the mediating role of green intellectual capital

Purpose Green intellectual capital (GIC) and green leadership styles are vital strategic resources that enable firms to strengthen their sustainable competitive advantage by fostering environmental innovation and long-term value creation. This research presents a theoretical framework to examine the relationships among GIC components, green leadership styles, green supply chain management (GSCM), and green innovation (GI), grounded in the natural resource-based view and upper echelons theory. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional survey design to examine the proposed relationships. Data were collected through an online questionnaire from 195 manufacturing firms across diverse industrial sectors in Türkiye. The proposed research model was evaluated using structural equation modeling (SEM) in Jamovi. Findings Our findings indicate that both green transactional and transformational leadership significantly and positively associated with the components of GIC. Specifically, green customer management has a strongly and positively associated with GI, whereas green supplier management shows no significant relationship with GI. Moreover, both green human capital (GHC) and green relational capital (GRC) partially mediate the relationship between green transformational leadership and GSCM (green supplier management and green customer management). Additionally, these dimensions partially mediate the relationship between green transactional leadership and green customer management and fully mediate the relationship between green transactional leadership and green supplier management. Originality/value This research contributes to the GSCM literature by integrating green leadership styles, GIC, and GI within a unified framework and examining the distinct roles of green human capital and green relational capital in the relationships between leadership and GSCM outcomes.