Yaw Agyabeng

PurposeThe priority giving to green practices in today's competitive market has made green logistics management practices (GLMPS) a significant driver of organizational performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of GLMPS, logistics ecocentricity and supply chain traceability on sustainability performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses structured questionnaires to gather data from 274 managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana. The partial least square structural equation modeling approach is used to analyze the data to test the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results obtained from the analysis indicate that GLMPS positively influence social sustainability and environmental sustainability. However, GLMPS negatively influence business performance. The results further reveal that logistics ecocentricity and supply chain traceability augment GLMPS to achieve significant improvement in both business performance and environmental sustainability through...

Renewable energy capacity in Africa is expected to reach 169.4 GW by 2040 from 48.5 GW in 2019. The growth of the sector necessitates a re-evaluation of the environmental impacts of renewable energy on the continent to inform mitigation decisions. This study presents the first literature review of the life cycle assessments of renewable energy in Africa and gives an in-depth analysis of environmental issues that are specific to Africa's renewable energy sector. It performs a systematic assessment of literature on the topic, examines the state-of-the-art, and critically evaluates environmental impacts on the continent, implications of methodological choices, gaps, challenges, and compares the findings with other regions. Climate change has been extensively researched in the studies, due to decarbonisation being among policy priorities. Other relevant impact categories such as resource depletion in non-closed loop systems, ecotoxicity from recycling emissions, or ecosystem degradation from landfill leachate are not fully explored despite the end-of-life being potentially a major burden for the continent. Choice of functional units and multifunctional processes give wide variations in the magnitude of environmental impacts for similar technologies and, therefore, have implications for decision-making. For example, similar biodiesel jatropha systems with energy-and mass-based functional units differ by around 16% in their climate change potentials. To ensure that life cycle assessment results apply to mitigation decisions in Africa, studies should consider methodological issues such as lack of transparency in inventories, incomplete coverage of life cycle stages and impact categories, and missing databases adapted for the African context.

Purpose - The study explores the role of green human capital in the implementation of green logistics practices to build green competitiveness, and achieve improved social performance and financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach – This study employs structured questionnaires to gather data from 152 managers from small and medium enterprises in Ghana. The data is analyzed and the hypotheses tested using the partial least square structural equation modelling.
Findings – The findings reveal that green human capital does have significant influence on
financial performance. However, green human capital does not have significant influence on social performance and green competitiveness. Besides, green logistics practices significantly improve social performance, financial performance and green competitiveness. Green logistics practices mediate the relationship between green human capital and green competitiveness, social performance and financial performance. Hence, green human capital influences the successful implementation of green logistics practices, which results in building stronger green competitiveness, and better social and financial performances.
Originality/value – This paper is among the dearth of studies that examine the role of green human capital in the implementation of green logistics practices. This study pioneers the exploration of the role of green human capital in the implementation of green logistics practices to improve social performance, financial performance and green competitiveness among SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa. The study’s findings expand literature by providing new insights into the effect between green logistics practices, financial performance, social performance and green competitiveness from Ghanaian SMEs.

Purpose – The desire for firms to gain competitive advantage and improve performance has resulted in the
adoption of several practices. Green supply chain practices (GSCPs), just in time (JIT) and total quality
management (TQM) are some of the practices adopted by firms to improve operational performance (OP) and
business performance (BP). This study examines the direct influence of GSCPs, JIT and TQM on operational
performance and BP. The study further analyzes the synergy of GSCPs, JIT and TQM on OP and BP.
Design/methodology/approach – This study employs the quantitative approach of research by using
questionnaire to gather data from manufacturing managers and supply chain managers of 140 manufacturing
firms in Ghana. The research uses partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM) to analyze the
survey data.
Findings – The results of the analysis show that GSCPs, TQM and JIT positively influence both OP and BP.
The findings reveal that GSCPs combine with JIT and TQM to improve OP and BP significantly. However, the
synergy between green supply chain and TQM creates more value for both OP and BP than the synergy
between GSCPs and JIT.
Originality/value – The study proposes a research model that examines both the individual and combined
influence of GSCPs, TQM and JIT on both OP and BP from the developing country perspective. The study
models GSCPs as an antecedent of JIT and TQM, which has not been explored

Purpose-This study aims to examine the direct impact of internal green supply chain practices (IGSCP) on green human resource management (GHRM), supply chain environmental cooperation (SCEC) and firm performance (FP). The mediating influences of GHRM and SCEC on the influence of IGSCP on FP are also examined. The study further examines the mediating influence of SCEC on the link between GHRM and FP. Design/methodology/approach-The study uses a quantitative method where data is gathered from human resource and supply chain managers of 139 manufacturing firms (food, beverage and alcohol, textiles, agrochemical and plastics), using customized questionnaires. The data is analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling software (SmartPLS 3.2.8). Findings-The results suggest that the adoption of only IGSCP may negatively affect the market and financial performances of firms. However, the implementation of GHRM and SCEC may catalyze IGSCP to improve FP. Originality/value-The study develops a comprehensive empirical model that tests the joint influence of internal green supply chain, GHRM and SCEC on FP. The findings indicate that IGSCP, GHRM and SCEC help firms to advance FP.

The quest to gain competitive advantage and improve performance has triggered the need for managers of firms to look for new strategies to outwit competitors. This study investigates the potential influence of supply chain integration on the development of capabilities and firm performance. We analysed the data collected from 275 supply chain managers of wholesale firms in Ghana with SmartPLS 3. We discovered that firms which share knowledge, skills, information, and resources with supply chain partners develop supply chain capabilities and improve performance. We will discuss the contributions and the limitations in the content.

Purpose - This study examines the mediation effects of time-based competitiveness,
cost-based competitiveness, and customer performance between logistics outsourcing
and financial performance.
Design/ methodology/ approach: The study relied on a questionnaire as the primary
data collection instrument and further employed partial least squares structural
equation modeling technique to test all formulated hypotheses.
Findings: The results demonstrate that logistics outsourcing has a significant positive
impact on time-based competitiveness, cost-based competitiveness, customer
performance, and financial performance. Time-based competitiveness and cost-based
competitiveness were both found to have a significant positive impact on financial
performance; however, customer performance had no significant impact on financial
performance. The mediation analysis further indicates that while both time-based
competitiveness and cost-based competitiveness play mediation effects between
logistics outsourcing and financial performance, customer performance plays no
mediation effect between logistics outsourcing and financial performance.
Research limitations/implications: The sampled firms for this study came from a
single emerging country; hence, our results cannot be generalized or imported to
reflect the results that may be obtained from other emerging geographical settings.
Practical implications: The results provide sufficient evidence for managers to turn
their attention to logistics outsourcing, as a transformative business initiative, to gain
time-based and cost-based competitiveness so as to improve financial performance.
Originality/value: The study provides significant insight and makes an additional
contribution to literature in the area of logistics outsourcing, especially by collecting
data from an emerging country. Modeling time-based competitiveness, cost-based
competitiveness, and customer performance as mediating variables between logistics
outsourcing and financial performance make this work relatively different from other
studies.

Purpose - The desire for firms to gain competitive advantage and improve performance has resulted in the adoption of several practices. Green supply chain practices, just in time and total quality management are some of the practices adopted by firms to improve operational and business performances. This study examines the direct influence of green supply chain practices, just in time and total quality management on operational performance and business performance. The study further analyzes the synergy of green supply chain practices, just in time and total quality management on operational and business performances.

Methodology – This study employs the quantitative approach of research by using questionnaire to gather data from manufacturing managers and supply chain managers of 140 manufacturing firms in Ghana. The research uses partial least square structural equation modelling to analyze the survey data.

Findings - The results of the analysis show that green supply chain practices, total quality management and just in time positively influence both operational and business performances. The findings reveal that green supply chain practices combine with just in time and total quality management to improve operational performance and business performance significantly. However, the synergy between green supply chain and total quality management creates more value both operational and business performances than the synergy between green supply chain practices and just in time.

Originality - The study proposes a research model that examines both the individual and combined influence of green supply chain practices, total quality management and just in time on both operational performance and business performance from the developing country perspective. The study models green supply chain practices as antecedent of just in time and total quality management, which has not been explored.