Investigating the Antecedents of Green Manufacturing Practices Adoption in a Sub-Saharan African Country: An Extended Institutional Theory Perspective

Due to the increasing importance of green and environmental practices in global supply chains, this study investigates the relationships between institutional forces (coercive, normative, and mimetic forces) and green manufacturing practices (GMP) in a sub-Saharan African (SSA) country context. In addition, we propose and investigate the relationship between custodial force and GMP; custodial force is proposed as an additional institutional force that may be at play uniquely in a sub-Saharan African context. Given the important role that custodial force plays in shaping institutions in SSA contexts, we, in turn, investigate the moderating role of custodial force on the relationships between institutional forces and GMP. We carried out a survey of 146 manufacturing firms operating in Ghana to test the hypotheses. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Our findings confirm that in addition to coercive and normative forces, custodial force positively relates to GMP adoption. In addition, custodial force moderates the negative relationship between mimetic force and GMP. The study extends the institutional theory by theorizing a new dimension of institutional force that may be context-specific, and examining how it interacts with the established institutional forces to drive adoption of GMP.