Green human resource management practices to accomplish green competitive advantage: A moderated mediation model

Khurram Mustafa; Md Billal Hossain; Farooq Ahmad; Faisal Ejaz; Hafiz Ghufran Ali Khan; Anna Dunay

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21830

Green human resource management practices to accomplish green competitive advantage: A moderated mediation model

Heliyon. 2023 Oct 31;9(11):e21830. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e21830. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Khurram Mustafa¹, Md Billal Hossain², Farooq Ahmad³, Faisal Ejaz⁴, Hafiz Ghufran Ali Khan⁵, Anna Dunay⁶

Affiliations

¹ MS Scholar in Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Okara, Okara, Pakistan.
² Business Management and Marketing Department, School of Business and Economics, Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), Tashkent 100047, Uzbekistan.
³ Department of Business Administration, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
⁴ School of International Relations, Minhaj University, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁵ Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁶ John von Neumann University, Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration, 1117 Budapest, 6000 Kecskemét, Hungary.

Abstract

In present high-tech era, firms need to possess a variety of capabilities and resources to attain and sustain a competitive position in the market. The motivation for this study was to understand green competitive advantage through the application of Ability-Motivation-Opportunity theory and Natural-Resource-Based view. In a time-lagging longitudinal online survey related to small-and-medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, 223 professionals provided data according to their opinions. The structural and measurement model were designed for analyses. The results supported the model and verify the Green human resource management practices' influence on green competitive advantage, with partial mediation of green knowledge sharing and green innovation (green product innovation and green process innovation). The analyses revealed the positive highly significant moderation of green human capital, which is the novelty of the study. Green human capital is important to develop sustainable workforce who act as catalyst in achieving sustainable development goals. The report offers practical advice for small-medium manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs) aiming to attain a green competitive advantage. With the help of a green competitive advantage, the recommendations in this study can benefit SMMEs to develop a green human capital and to create innovative knowledge. As a result, it is a futuristic approach to dealing with the improved environmental conditions and developed a green human capital in this industrialized age.

Keywords: Green competitive advantage; Green human capital; Green human resource management practices; Green innovation; Green knowledge sharing.