Eco-market orientation in the logistics industry: a conveyor belt for achieving organizational outcomes via green logistics practices

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-07-2021-0383
• Published date: 22 March 2022
• Date: 22 March 2022
• Pages: 712-734
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: Ebenezer Afum,Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah,Charles Baah,George Asamoah,Lawrence Yaw Kusi

Eco-market orientation in the

logistics industry: a conveyor belt

for achieving organizational

outcomes via green

logistics practices

Ebenezer Afum and Yaw Agyabeng-Mensah

Transportation Engineering College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China

Charles Baah

Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China

George Asamoah

Department of Integrated Marketing, Ghana Institute of Journalism,

Dzorwulu, Ghana, and

Lawrence Yaw Kusi

Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, School of Business,

University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

Purpose –The compounding impacts of climate change has mobilised unstinting endeavours of researchers,

ecologists and corporate leaders to explore new ways for the logistics industry to manage environmental

problems, improve social outcomesand gain competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to investigate

the mediation roles of inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices between eco-

market orientation, green value competitiveness and social sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach –By employing explanatory research design, with questionnaire-based

survey, data for the study was collected from Ghanaian logistics firms. The data is analysed using the partial

least square structural equation modelling.

Findings –The results indicate that eco-market orientation has a significant positive impact on green value

competitiveness. However, eco-market orientation was found to have an insignificant impact on social

sustainability. The results further confirmed the notion that eco-market orientation substantially strengthens

the implementation of inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices. Specifically,

the mediation analysis confirmed that inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices

serve as indirect mechanisms through which eco-market orientation significantly influences green value

competitiveness and social sustainability.

Originality/value –Compared to previous literature, this is a pioneer study that develops an explanatory

research framework under the lenses of the natural resource-based theory, stakeholder theory and resource

advantage theory in illuminating how inbound green logistics practices and outbound green logistics practices

act as mediation mechanisms between eco-market orientation and green value competitiveness and eco-market

orientation and social sustainability.

Keywords Eco-market orientation, Inbound green logistics practices, Outbound green logistics practices,

Green value competitiveness, Social sustainability

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Over the last couple of decades, the practices of logistics firms have been subjected to serious

scrutiny due to the issues of environmental sustainability. With most logistics firms heavily

depending on fossil fuels and non-renewable natural resources, there is a growing pressure on

the logistics industry to provide more environmental-based services (Karaman et al., 2020).

IJLM

33,2

712

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 21 July 2021

Revised 24 January 2022

Accepted 3 March 2022

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 33 No. 2, 2022

pp. 712-734

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-07-2021-0383

The 2014 reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggest that

approximately 78% of carbon emissions can be attributed to the burning of fossil fuels and

the activities of firms. It is further reported that close to 22% of harmful carbon dioxide

emissions which negatively affect humans and the environment can be traced to logistics

transportation (Agyabeng-Mensah et al., 2020). Given the growing demand for logistics

services coupled with the increase in environmental awareness among myriad stakeholders

(Baah et al., 2021), logistics firms are no longer treating green practices with levity (Zhang

et al., 2020); but are constantly adjusting their competitive priorities to accommodate

sustainability concerns into their respective organizations (Vanalle et al., 2017).

Eco-market orientation (EMO) has been touted by some scholars (Chen et al., 2015;Li et al.,

2018) as an environmental management offspring that robustly helps corporate managers to

recognize the essence of ecological concerns facing their firms. Contemporary firms obtain a

holistic perspective of market conditions and effectively accumulate green information about

their customers and competitors when they employ EMO (Qu and Liu, 2020). Consequently,

logistics companies may enjoy a superior green value-based competitive advantage and

improve social performance when they rely on EMO (Masa’deh et al., 2018). Past studies

(Chung, 2020;Rudawska, 2018;Adi and Adawiyah, 2018) have often used synonymous terms

such as sustainable market orientation, green market orientation and environmental market

orientation to represent EMO.

As a relatively fresh research direction in the marketing and environmental management

domain, previous studies (Vilkaite-Vaitone and Skackauskiene, 2019;Papadas et al., 2017;

Tollin and Christensen, 2019) on EMO have focused on its conceptualization, scale

development and potential drivers. Also, other studies (Jiang et al., 2020;Ali et al., 2020;

Li et al., 2018) have uncovered the environmental and financial performance advantages

associated with EMO. However, unlocking the social impact of EMO has been sparsely

studied among scholars (Pinheiro et al., 2021). Moreover, previous researchers (de Guimaraes

et al., 2018;Mahmoud, 2016) that have attempted to establish a possible linkage between

market orientation and competitive advantage have been biased towards measuring the cost

component of competitive a dvantage, and thus, overloo king the green value-base d

competitiveness. As such, there is a need for more studies to find out whether EMO

significantly influences green value competitiveness (GVC).

Furthermore, unlike emergent countries (especially those in Africa such as Ghana) where

the environmental awakening and research on EMO as well as green logistics practices seems

limited and in a promising stage (Baah et al., 2020), the green theme keeps flourishing in

developed countries (e.g. USA, Germany, Greece) and other fast-developing countries such as

China (Green et al., 2015;Li et al., 2021;Centobelli et al., 2020;Papadas et al., 2019). Specifically,

a systematic review undertaken by El Baz et al. (2019) and the work of Li et al. (2018)

bemoaned the limited literature on EMO and green practices in emergent countries (especially

those in African countries such as Ghana). Thus, carrying out this study in the Ghanaian

context is a step in the right direction for corporate leaders and policymakers in the logistics

industry.

More so, the works linking market orientation and firm competitiveness have reported

either positive or negative findings; thus suggesting conflicting perspectives. For instance,

some studies (Pratono et al., 2019;Iyer et al., 2019) unveiled significant positive impacts of

market orientation on firm competitiveness and image. However, other studies (Jogaratnam,

2017;Ho et al., 2018) suggest that firms that keep faith with market orientation may not

necessarily achieve superior competitiveness. The dissonance in findings is an indication that

the linkage between EMO and firm competitiveness is somewhat complex and that there may

be an explanatory link (mediation role) instead of just examining a direct effect. As such,

contrary to existing studies, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the mediation

roles of green logistics practices [inbound green logistics practices (IGLP) and outbound

Inbound and

outbound

green logistics

practice

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