The Stakeholder’s Pressure and Environmental Supply Chain: Does the Environmental Training Matter in Thai Sports Manufacturing Firms?

Abstract

The main objective of the current study is to examine the impact of stakeholder’s pressure on the environmental supply chain practices. Meanwhile, the mediating role of environmental training in the relationship between stakeholders’ pressure and environmental supply chain is also examined. The study has used the SEM-PLS in the study. The data is collected from the operation and general managers of Thai sports firms. The response rate is 58.5 percent.The mediation analysis indicates a partial mediating role of environmental training in the relationship of regulatory stakeholders and market with the adoption of environmental supply chain practices. Two important findings are obtained in this study; firstly, regulatory governance and market stakeholders are of significant importance for implementing environmental supply chain practices. Secondly, greaterenvironmental supply chain practicesinitiatives will be achieved by the use of environmental training, as compared to the case of separately using stakeholder governance mechanism as pressure for the firm. Findings also suggested that regulatory governance itself has an important role but combining it with market stakeholder may help firms to achieve effectiveness of sustainability enhancing initiatives.Keeping in view the essential role of environmental training programs, there is also a need to assess if these training programs play the role of mediator under different geographic and regulatory conditions and in other industries. In addition, no supportive evidence is obtained in favor of non-market stakeholders. The active role of non-market stakeholder in sustainability initiatives can also be examined in future studies.