Business Ethics: A European Review

Abstract

Evidence on how green drivers, barriers, and logistics practices shape sustainable performance remains mixed across industries and institutional contexts.As organizations face growing expectations to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, understanding how logistics firms embed sustainable practices has become an important business ethics concern.This study examines how internal and external green drivers and barriers influence green logistics practices and sustainable performance among Malaysian logistics service providers (LSPs), a sector that is the country's second-largest contributor to carbon emissions.By positioning green logistics as an expression of corporate environmental responsibility, the study explains how responsible business practices enhance environmental, social, and economic performance.Survey data from LSPs were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA).The results show that internal drivers and barriers exert a stronger influence than external factors.Green logistics practices directly improve sustainable performance and mediate the relationship between internal drivers and sustainability outcomes.Overall, the findings indicate that environmentally responsible logistics depends on strengthening internal capabilities, reducing organizational barriers, and embedding green logistics practices alongside responding to external pressures.By integrating Institutional Theory and the Resource-Based View through a hybrid PLS-SEM-fsQCA approach, this study demonstrates that, in an emerging economy where external sustainability pressures are still evolving, logistics operations are highly cost-and asset-intensive, and small and medium enterprises dominate the sector, internal organizational capabilities are more decisive than regulatory and market pressures in fostering corporate environmental responsibility and sustainable performance through multiple organizational pathways.

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