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As sustainability becomes more important in manufacturing, researchers recommend using the four-stage Hayes and Wheelwright (H-W) model of strategic manufacturing effectiveness (SME) to integrate sustainable manufacturing practices (SMPs) at a strategic level. However, there is limited research on this topic. This paper investigates SMPs encompassing four sustainable manufacturing capabilities (SMCs): pollution control, pollution prevention, product stewardship, and clean technology. It relates these SMCs to the four SME stages of the H-W model, both of which form a continuum of stages.

A theoretical model on the congruence between SMCs and SME stages is first established using organizational theories to identify the dominant combinations. This model is then tested by examining 178 SMPs of four large manufacturing firms.

The study reveals that the SMPs of the case firms clearly show SMC and SME stage characteristics. Few deviations from the relationships established in the theoretical model are observed, leading to a revision of the model. A major finding is that SMPs within an SMC category can span multiple SME stages.

The study proposes a revised model based on a small sample of case firms, which may limit its broader applicability.

Manufacturing practitioners can use the findings of this study to plan SMPs that align with their SME goals.

Towards incorporating sustainability in the H-W model, this is the first major exploratory study that establishes congruent relationship between SMCs and SME stages of the H-W model.

Sustainable management practices are crucial environmental initiatives implemented by manufacturing organisations to mitigate growing social and ecological problems and progress operational and economic successes. The theory of constraints highlights the essence of adopting sustainability practices, including green management, lean management, top management commitment and reverse logistics, to address production constraints and achieve manufacturing performance. However, more empirical evidence is required to determine whether sustainability practices affect manufacturing performance metrics in economies like Ghana. This research establishes whether adopting sustainable management practices impacts manufacturers’ operational and sustainable performance.

This deductive research adopts an explanatory research design. Survey data was administered to 285 managers in 5,329 manufacturing businesses in Ghana. The data was processed and analysed with SmartPLS4.1 and structural equation modelling.

Green management and top management commitment positively predict the performance aspects of manufacturing organisations in Ghana. Also, reverse logistics and lean management practices improve firms’ operational, social and environmental performance, except for economic performance. It is concluded that manufacturing businesses that embrace sustainable management practices can improve their performance.

Although the study’s objectives were primarily achieved, it was geographically restricted to Ghana, a developing country. Also, it was carried out within the boundaries of explanatory design and structural equation modelling.

It provides comprehensive information to assist owner-managers in prioritising heavy investments in appropriate sustainable management practices. It will also encourage them to develop a sustainability culture within their firms and supply chains to fast-track and sustain the adopted practices. These measures will enable manufacturing organisations to effectively handle growing sustainability problems to leverage their sustainable and operational performance.

This study analyses the interplay between sustainable management practices and manufacturing performance dimensions in a developing economy. Hence, the outcomes would serve as valuable guidelines for selecting relevant practices to foster sustainable production and meet performance objectives.

Environmental emissions are increasing in the urban areas. Much of the emissions arise from public procurement activities given that public sector firms are major customers to many supplying firms. Given the tremendous contribution, this study aims to examine the adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices among public sector firms through assessing the impact of urban environmental governance, government environmental communication and organizational environmental governance.

Data for the study were collected in a single time period from central procuring and disposing entities (public sector firms) in the urban areas. A sample of 105 public sector firms in were used. One procurement officer and one member of the contracts committee were the key informants in the study. AMOS SPSS version 26 was used to obtain the results for the structural model and measurement model, respectively.

The findings indicate that the adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices among public sector firms is significantly influenced by government environmental communication, organizational environmental governance and urban environmental governance. Urban environmental governance significantly influences organizational environmental governance. Urban environmental governance fully mediates the relationship between government environmental communication and public sector firms’ adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices. Also, urban environmental governance and organizational environmental governance mediate the relationship between government environmental communication and adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices.

This study examined the adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices among public sector firms. However, the study was conducted in a public procurement setting rather than a private sector procurement setting. Also, the study examined the impact of government environmental communication on public sector firms’ adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices ignoring the impact of internal communications made within the public sector firms on environmental issues.

This study examined the adoption of environmentally friendly urban freight logistics practices among public sector firms. Freight logistics in public sector procurement has not been given significant attention in earlier research. Emphasis is placed on sustainable public sector procurement ignoring other aspects that would help curb environmental emissions that may arise during and after the delivery of public procurement requirements.

Many firms are now pursuing large-scale change initiatives to accelerate their digital transformation (DT) and sustainable development. However, the success rate of DT projects is still low, and the extent to which DT enables firms to improve environmental sustainability (ES) remains unclear. Recently, researchers have argued that DT is more about people transformation rather than technology. Based on the contingent resource-based view, this study investigates how DT influences ES and examines the moderating role of training provision (TP).

Survey data gathered from manufacturers in China were analysed to test the proposed theoretical framework.

The results indicate that DT has a positive impact on ES, and that this effect is positively moderated by TP.

The empirical findings provide insights for managers to understand the success of digital sustainability transformation requires necessary digital knowledge and skills derived from TP.

This study provides an initial examination of digital sustainability, which is a new stream of literature for the digital age, and further extends existing knowledge by demonstrating the importance of people (i.e. TP) in strengthening the effectiveness of DT on ES.

Based on the Social Exchange Theory (SET), the paper attempts to extend the research on the relationship between green self-managed teams and firm performance by exploring the serial mediation of extra-role green behavior and environmental performance. Furthermore, via moderated mediation, the study inspected the differences in relationships among these variables for manufacturing and service organizations.

Data of 407 respondents from 122 manufacturing and service organizations (having green self-managed teams) operating in India were collected using purposive sampling. Various statistical techniques like confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), correlations, multiple regressions and bootstrapping were employed.

The results indicated that extra-role green behavior and environmental performance served as serial mediators. Additionally, the nature of the organizations significantly moderated several indirect relationships, with one pathway found to be insignificant.

The study may be limited by the fact that the data were collected at a single moment in time rather than using a longitudinal design.

The study guides service organizations to attract environmentally conscious employees by promoting green self-managed teams and manufacturing organizations to enrich their operations and service delivery through such teams.

The study uniquely examines how green self-managed teams addressing environmental issues contribute to improved firm performance through mutual exchanges. It also advances existing literature by conducting a comparative analysis across manufacturing and service organizations in an emerging Indian market.

Current studies show that the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology is used all over the world, by different types of companies in different countries. However, this is not yet the case for certain developing countries such as Morocco, where this methodology is still being discovered and applied and where also the relationship between the adoption of this methodology and sustainable performance is not yet clear. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of LSS tools, used by industrial companies in Morocco, on the three dimensions of performance: economic, social and environmental.

This study used partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to conduct an empirical examination of the impact of LSS tools used by Moroccan manufacturing industries on their sustainable performance. Data were collected using a semistructured questionnaire, with a total of 121 valid responses collected for this study.

The results showed that the adoption of LSS tools has a positive effect on the sustainable performance of these industries. The analysis of the collected data also revealed that this effect is most significant when it comes to social performance, followed by environmental and finally economic performance. It was also found that Lean Management tools have a greater impact than Six Sigma tools.

The results of this study may encourage Moroccan industries that are new to LSS to adopt it, as it proves to have positive results not only on the economic aspects of the firm but also on the improvement of employee well-being and the protection of our planet’s environment. In addition, this study gives them an idea of the tools that are most widely used in their Moroccan context, thus facilitating the choice of tools with which they can begin to embed a continuous improvement mindset.

Although several studies have already analyzed the relationship between the LSS approach and sustainable performance, these studies have generally focused on developed countries that are well advanced in the use of these tools. Hence, the originality of this study is its relevance to the Moroccan context, which still needs more studies in the fields of continuous improvement and sustainability.

This study aims to investigate the impact of firms’ digital orientation (FDO) on corporate green innovation (CGI) among Chinese firms, examining the effects of financial constraint as the mediator and exploring heterogeneous effects across different firm contexts.

Using a sample of 28,697 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies (2008–2021), we employ a novel multidimensional measure of FDO derived from textual analysis of corporate annual reports. CGI is quantified using patent-based metrics. We utilize fixed-effects panel data models as benchmark regression to quantify FDO’s impact on CGI. Later, we utilize two-stage least squares, alternate measure for core explanatory variable, alternate as well as lead measures for explained variable and propensity score matching to tackle concerns for potential endogeneity.

Our results unveil a substantial positive connection between FDO and CGI. This connection is facilitated through the alleviation of financial constraints. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of FDO on CGI is more pronounced for state-owned enterprises, firms in areas with lower financial technology development and politically connected firms.

Our findings suggest that managers should view FDO as a strategic posture that can drive sustainable innovation, not just as a technological imperative. Policymakers should consider the role of FDO when designing policies to promote CGI, particularly in less-developed regions.

This study extends current understanding by: (1) Employing a comprehensive multidimensional measure of FDO that goes beyond the existing technologically focused digital transformation matrices. (2) Identifying financial constraints as a key mediating mechanism in the FDO–CGI relationship. (3) Revealing heterogeneous effects across different firm contexts, providing nuanced insights into how institutional and environmental factors moderate this relationship.

This research assesses the present condition of Circular Economy (CE) practices in green hotels situated in two leading Middle Eastern nations, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Furthermore, it investigates the crucial impact of Industry 4.0 innovations in facilitating the relationship between the adoption of CE initiatives and hotel performance (HP).

Data from 59 green hotels in Saudi Arabia and 76 in Egypt were collected online, resulting in 400 complete forms, providing a diverse sample size suitable for PLS-SEM analysis using JASP software as a leading machine learning application.

The results demonstrate a notable correlation between CE strategies, including redesign, production, reuse and recovery in hotels and HP. Additionally, the impact of Industry 4.0 performance on the relationship between CE and HP is facilitated by four distinct CE loops.

This study offers practical insights into implementing CE practices in the hotel industry, aiding policymakers and establishments in enhancing sustainability and performance. Key stakeholders can use these findings to develop strategies that integrate CE initiatives, improve operational outcomes and align marketing efforts with sustainable practices.

This study is groundbreaking in its exploration of the relationship between CE and the transition to Industry 4.0 in the MENA region, analyzing the specific CE practices that contribute to high HP. The tested model expands on the Natural Resource-Based View and stakeholder theory by incorporating the critical role of Industry 4.0 innovations in the CE–HP nexus.

Inspired by the internationalisation paths to prosperity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where narcissistic leaders are diligent about organisations but also pursue their dark goals, this study aims to concurrently examine two avenues for the internationalisation of narcissistic leaders in SMEs concerning the function of team organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB): corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) and digital business model innovation (BMI).

This study utilised a quantitative design emphasising mature theory research, and data was analysed using multiple regression analysis and Hayes' process model. The data for this study was collected via surveys from 270 SMEs in Vietnam.

The study showed that narcissistic Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) can penetrate the global market profoundly by utilising both the righteous path, which is based on the power of the times via BMI, and the unethical path, CSI. However, team devotion via OCB can mitigate the unethical conduct of narcissistic CEOs.

The study endeavoured to find a path to internationalisation for SMEs in emerging markets with high economic openness and increasingly close connections with international markets, via two strategies for SMEs to conquer the international market more successfully, and with utilising the foundations of CEO narcissism and team citizenship behaviour.

This study contributed to the theory of SME internationalisation by employing the resource-based view and upper-echelon theory, with the updated Uppsala model as its foundation.

The climate change crisis is putting pressure on high-polluting companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which often requires significant investments. This study aims to propose a framework for companies to reduce their GHG emissions while enhancing their financial performance.

A case study approach examines four South Korean listed companies in high GHG-emission sectors, identifying their GHG reduction activities. Based on the findings, a new framework has been developed and applied to two other companies to test its practicability and effectiveness.

Enhanced corporate governance can align with sustainable goals of mitigating GHG emissions. Direct emissions (Scope 1) can be reduced by improving manufacturing processes, while indirect emissions (Scope 2) can be lowered with increased use of renewable energy. Cost reductions can be achieved through production optimization and using byproducts as inputs for other industries. Revenue growth can be achieved by promoting energy-efficient products, engaging customers in environmental initiatives and recycling materials.

This study introduces a comprehensive and practical framework for companies, particularly those in high-polluting sectors, to develop effective strategies that address climate change while improving financial outcomes. The framework presents a win-win approach for reducing GHG emissions and enhancing financial performance.