Understanding the relationships between internal resources and capabilities, sustainable supply management and organizational sustainability

This study aspires to empirically evaluate the effect of firm-specific resources and/or capabilities on sustainable supply management (SSM) and sustainability performance. Specifically, enviropreneurship and strategic purchasing are, respectively, recognized as firm-specific capabilities and resources that are fundamental to pursuing sustainable supply practices. SSM is forwarded as a key relational capability that can result in significant improvements in organizational sustainability. Using data collected from 145 U.S. firms and advanced structural equation modeling approaches, a number of direct, mediation and moderation effects are hypothesized and tested. Five of the six proposed hypotheses were found to be significant, providing strong support for the significant role that internal resources/capabilities can play in managing sustainable supply practices as well as organizational sustainability. Surprisingly, the hypothesis suggesting that strategic purchasing could moderate the relationship between enviropreneurship and SSM was found to be insignificant. This result suggests that managers need to realize that a strategic purchasing function alone cannot help in achieving the lofty goals of sustainability. On the contrary, the prime objective of firms must be to nurture an enviropreneurial orientation within their organization. Further implications for future research and practice within SSM are offered.