Sustainable supply chain practices and green HRM drive supply chain performance through green innovation

In the modern world, the way a company makes and moves its products is no longer just about speed and cost. It is increasingly about how those actions affect the planet and the people involved. Two major ideas have emerged to address this. The first is sustainable supply chain practices, which means a company carefully chooses its suppliers, designs its factories to use less energy, and manages waste so that the entire journey of a product—from raw material to the final customer—causes the least possible harm to the environment. The second idea is green human resource management. This approach treats the people who work for the company as essential partners in this mission. Instead of just hiring for skills, these companies hire for environmental values, train their staff on how to be eco-friendly, and reward employees who come up with ideas to reduce pollution. When these two forces work together, they create a culture where doing the right thing for the environment becomes part of the daily job, rather than just a rule to follow.

A team of researchers set out to understand how these concepts actually work together in the real world, specifically within the pharmaceutical industry in Jordan. This sector is vital because it produces the medicines that keep people healthy, but it also generates significant chemical waste and consumes large amounts of resources. The researchers wanted to see if combining sustainable operations with a green-focused workforce actually leads to better results for the business. They were particularly interested in a third element: green innovation. This is the act of creating new, cleaner products or inventing better, less wasteful ways to make them. The central question was whether these sustainable practices and green employees simply improve the company directly, or if they first spark new ideas and inventions that then drive the improvement.

To find the answers, the researchers focused on the pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Jordan, a region known for exporting medicines throughout the Middle East and North Africa. They selected 315 experienced managers and senior staff members from various departments, including supply chain, production, quality control, and environmental management. These were the people who knew the inner workings of their factories and supply lines best. The team distributed a detailed questionnaire to these professionals, asking them to rate their company's practices, their staff's training, their level of innovation, and their overall performance. The researchers collected 315 usable responses, a high number that gave them a solid foundation for their analysis. They used a statistical method to map out the connections between these different factors, looking for patterns that showed cause and effect.

The study revealed a clear and powerful story. First, the researchers found that when a pharmaceutical company adopts sustainable supply chain practices, it directly leads to better overall performance. This includes improvements in how efficiently the company operates, how well it meets regulations, and how satisfied its customers are. Similarly, having a green human resource system in place also directly boosts performance. When companies hire with the environment in mind, train their staff on sustainability, and reward green behavior, the supply chain runs more smoothly and effectively. However, the most significant finding was the role of green innovation. The data showed that sustainable practices and green human resource management do not just improve performance on their own; they also act as powerful engines for innovation. Companies that are serious about sustainability and have a workforce trained in green values are much more likely to invent new, eco-friendly products and processes.

Crucially, the study demonstrated that this new wave of innovation is the bridge that connects these efforts to success. The researchers found that green innovation plays a mediating role, meaning it is the mechanism through which the other factors create their full impact. In simpler terms, the sustainable practices and the green workforce create an environment where new ideas can flourish. These new ideas—such as a cleaner manufacturing process or a biodegradable package—then become the direct drivers that make the supply chain faster, cheaper, and more reliable. The data confirmed that the path from good environmental policies to a high-performing business often runs through the creation of these innovative solutions. The influence of green innovation was so strong that it helped explain why companies with these practices saw such marked improvements in their results.

The researchers also noted the limits of their work. Because they asked people about their experiences at a single point in time, they could not prove that one thing definitely caused the other over a long period. Their study was also specific to the pharmaceutical industry in Jordan, so the exact results might look different in other countries or in industries like textiles or food processing. Despite these boundaries, the findings offer a clear roadmap for business leaders. The study suggests that to truly excel, a company cannot treat sustainability as a separate checklist item. Instead, it must weave environmental goals into its hiring, its training, and its daily operations. By doing so, it unlocks a cycle where better practices lead to better ideas, and those better ideas lead to a stronger, more successful business. This approach turns the challenge of protecting the environment into a source of competitive advantage, proving that caring for the planet and running a successful company are not opposing goals, but partners in progress.