Antecedents and Consequences of Environmental Capability towards Sustainability and Competitiveness

Abstract

There is still little theoretically driven research and empirical evidence on how firms develop and adjust their existing resource capabilities to create environmental values that enable sustainability and competitiveness. This paper aims to establish a framework of environmental capability that predicts antecedents to and impacts on sustainable performance and competitiveness. The data contained in the review are analyzed based on articles from the perspectives of logistics service providers (LSPs) concerning sustainable and green practices. The results show that green resource-based logistics capabilities anticipate environmental capabilities, impacting sustainable performance and competitiveness. This inductive reasoning makes use of a number of theories and empirical studies that generalize the framework of environmental capabilities and hence contribute to the absence of theoretically driven research and empirical evidence. The study contributes to five types of emergent green resource-based logistics: physical, technological, knowledge-based, relational, and organizational, which must be aligned and developed to create a unique and durable framework of environmental capability for sustained environmental and competitive progress. The findings provide constructs and measurements for green resource-based logistics capabilities, sustainability, and competitiveness. This paper suggests that LSPs can reach superb performance outcomes through investing in green resource-based logistics to achieve a more positive impact in terms of environmental capability.