Exploring the relationships of strategic entrepreneurship and social capital to sustainable supply chain management and organizational performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to draw upon the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm in an attempt to explore how a firm’s resources (i.e. assets and capabilities) such as social capital (SC) and strategic entrepreneurship (SE) relate to sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and organizational performance (OP). Design/methodology/approach Data were collected by questionnaire survey from the supply chain and logistics managers of 242 manufacturing firms in Pakistan. The structural equation modeling approach was used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results provide support for the proposed hypotheses. The results indicate that SC and SE are positively related to OP. However, the findings show a positive but weak association of SC and SE with SSCM. In a developing country context of Pakistan, organizations are more likely to employ SC and SE for achieving OP. However, relatively less emphasis is placed on linking SC and SE to SSCM. Pakistani organizations need to integrate SSCM into their business strategies. It is concluded that organizations in Pakistan though have some degree of involvement in SSCM but still face some challenges. Originality/value The current study attempts to narrow the gap in the available literature in three important aspects. First, it makes the contribution to the literature on SSCM by employing RBV and exploring the relationships of a firm’s resources (i.e. SC) and capabilities (i.e. SE) to SSCM and OP. Second, it employs a relatively more comprehensive measure of SE compared to the limited measures in existing empirical research. Third, the examination of the links of SE and SC to SSCM and OP is of particular importance in the context of a developing country such as Pakistan.