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This study aims to find out whether firms in the local textiles industry are benefiting from the combined implementation of lean practices (LPs) and quick-response manufacturing (QRM) during the era of COVID-19. The study further explores the mediating role played by quick response manufacturing in the relationship between LPs, internal process performance (IPP) and customer performance.

A questionnaire is used to garner data from 123 local firms in Ghana’s textile industry. The analysis for all the hypothesized relationships is done using partial least square structural equation.

The results of the study indicate that LPs significantly strengthen the implementation of QRM. The result also suggests that LPs and QRM can be combined to influence IPP and customer performance. The results further suggest that QRM mediates the relationship between LPs, IPP and customer performance.

This study proposes and develops an integrated research model that explores the synergistic application of LPs and QRM in achieving improvements in IPP and customer performance from an emergent country perspective during the era of COVID-19. QRM serves as an important mechanism through which the relationship between LPs, IPP and customer performance can be explained.

Significant unexplored research gaps exist in relation to assessing how governments influence innovations in the logistics and supply chains of SMEs to mitigate risks. This study emphasizes the impacts of regulatory coercion and government subsidization on logistics and supply chain innovations and the corresponding effect of logistics and supply chain innovations on financial performance, logistics and supply chain robustness, green competitiveness, social and environmental responsibilities.

Using a quantitative approach, partial least square structural equation modeling and a survey research design, data were collected and analyzed on 210 logistics and manufacturing firms.

The results support the fundamentals of the stakeholder theory and natural resources-based view (NRBV) regarding the positive impacts of regulatory coercion and government subsidization on logistics and supply chain innovations. Furthermore, logistics and supply chain innovations significantly influenced firm performance (financial performance, logistics and supply chain robustness and green competitiveness) and societal impact (social and environmental responsibilities). Particularly, while logistics and supply chain innovations had insignificant influence on social and environmental responsibilities, the effects of logistics and supply chain robustness were significant.

The study presents empirical findings on the impact of government influences on logistics and supply chain management and the corresponding implications for firms and society. Thus, this study contributes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and logistics and supply chain literature and provides guidance for policymakers, industry players, scholars and practitioners.

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of organizational environmental orientation (EO)/culture, quality management practices (QMP) and sustainability experience (SE) on the relationship between organizational green practices (GP) and the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability performance (SuP).

To test the seven hypotheses, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The responses of 365 managers from various USA businesses in the service industries were analyzed using IBM SPSS and structural equation modeling (SEM)-AMOS.

The empirical results indicate that positive SuP in the economic, environmental and social dimensions and organizational GP can be improved by a strong culture of EO, effective QMP and substantial SE.

This research fills the gap in existing research between important organizational and environmental priorities and SuP. Consequently, the study provides managers with important strategic guidance: for environmental practices to achieve profitability and sustainability success, companies must promote an environmental-mindful culture and strategically invest in integrated QM systems.

This research is one of the first that explores how organizational environmental culture and QMP affect directly and indirectly the relationship between GP and SuP. These results provide empirical evidence to support the claim that environmental culture and QMP have significant direct and indirect effects on the relationship between GP and SuP dimensions.

With limited empirical evidence, prior studies have proposed that green practices can be leveraged to enhance carbon neutrality. This study draws on the contingent natural resource-based view (NRBV) to theorize and validate how pressure from supply chain (SC) stakeholders could amplify the effect of green logistics practices (GLPs) on carbon-neutral supply chain performance (CNSCP) among firms in developing countries. Specifically, this study contends that high levels of supply chain pressures (SCPs) (customers and suppliers) amplify the influence of GLPs on CNSCP.

An integrated model was tested using survey data gathered from 208 managers of logistics firms in Ghana. SPSS 23 and structural equation modeling were used for the data analyses.

Findings showed that all five dimensions of GLPs (transportation, warehousing, packaging and distribution, logistics information sharing and sustainable waste management) significantly enhance CNSCP. This study also found varying interactive effects of SCPs (customers and suppliers) on the link between GLPs (green transportation, green packaging and distribution) and CNSCP, such that different practices exert varying interactive effects at varying levels of SCPs.

This study offers fresh insights into how managers can leverage GLPs to achieve enhanced benefits in the form of CNSCP. The outcome of this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the GLPs-CNSCP link while shedding light on how firms can manage SCP to drive enhanced carbon-neutral performance through GLPs.

This study contributes to policymakers in enhancing the decarbonization of global SCs through sustainable logistics practices.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to theorize and empirically validate the influence of GLPs on CNSCP. This study identified five practices and demonstrated how these practices uniquely drive CNSCP, as opposed to previous studies that examined GLPs from a one-dimensional perspective. This study also expands the borders of sustainable logistics literature by theorizing and empirically validating SCPs (customers and suppliers) as necessary conditions to amplify the benefits of GLPs. In essence, the novelty of the present study lies in the integration of NRBV and stakeholder theories to unearth the mechanism for optimizing the GLP-CNSCP relationship, which is rare in the sustainable logistics literature.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies are encouraged to form supply chain collaborations (SCC) for better circular economy (CE) performance. Yet, the literature remains silent on SMEs’ susceptibility to opportunistic behaviors of supply chain (SC) partners. This study draws on the transaction cost theory (TCT) and the resource-based view (RBV) to investigate the impact of shirking on SCC and CE performance while exploring how circular economy entrepreneurship (CEE) can curb the impacts of shirking on SCC as well as drive technical capability (TC) to moderate the relationship between SCC and CE performance.

The TCT and RBV are used as a theoretical lens to investigate the direct, mediation and moderation effects tested via partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using survey data from 152 managers of SMEs in Nepal.

Contrary to past findings, the study results show that shirking, directly and indirectly, has a positive and significant impact on SCC and CE performance, respectively. The results also show that as CEE, which positively and significantly drives TC, moves from low to high levels, the effect of shirking on SCC dampens, and as TC moves from low to high levels, the effect of SCC on CE performance intensifies.

This study’s contribution lies in extending the shirking debate to the CE domain and also in identifying CEE and TC as potent means for SMEs in emerging economies to mitigate shirking impacts and induce SC partner commitments in CE-driven SCC. This study provides relevant theoretical and practical insights.