Green Human Resource Management Practices and Corporate Sustainability: Moderating Effect of Environmental Strategy in Nigeria

This study investigates the relationship between Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) practices and corporate sustainability among listed firms in Nigeria, with a focus on the moderating role of environmental strategy. Drawing on a panel dataset of 148 Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX)-listed firms spanning 2011 to 2025, this research employs ex-post facto research design and panel regression techniques — incorporating fixed effects, random effects, and the Hausman specification test — to examine how GHRM dimensions (green recruitment and selection, green training and development, green performance management, green compensation and rewards, and green employee involvement) influence corporate sustainability outcomes measured through environmental, economic, and social performance indicators. Environmental strategy is introduced as a moderating variable, while firm size, industry type, and leverage serve as control variables. The results reveal that GHRM practices positively and significantly predict corporate sustainability across all dimensions. Crucially, environmental strategy amplifies this relationship, suggesting that organisations with clearly articulated and institutionalised environmental strategies derive greater sustainability benefits from their GHRM investments. Firm size and industry type exert significant moderating influences, whereas leverage demonstrates a nuanced negative effect on sustainability outcomes. These findings contribute to the emerging GHRM literature in developing economy contexts, challenge assumptions that sustainability is the exclusive preserve of large multinationals, and offer strategic prescriptions for Nigerian regulators, HR professionals, and corporate boards. The study advances the Resource-Based View (RBV), Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV), and Stakeholder Theory as integrative explanatory lenses for sustainability behaviour in frontier markets.