Sustainability and reverse supply chain, the mediating role of ecological innovation

Abstract

The mounting obstacles of waste management and the increasing importance of ecological innovation, reverse supply chains become apparent tactic by organizations for resource retrieval, value creation, and reducing environmental footprint .This study examines the influence of sustainable practices such as sustainable procurement, green supplier collaboration, management commitment and environmental regulations on reverse supply chain with the mediation of ecological innovation in Iraqi small and medium enterprises. The study adopted a quantitative design and the data were collected from 350 questionnaire survey sent to owners and managers of manufacturing firms in Iraq. The author employed (PLS-SEM) to analyze the relationship among variables. The results show sustainable procurement, green supplier collaboration, top management commitment positively impacted ecological innovation. In contrast, environmental regulations have no direct effect on ecological innovation. This outcome can be explained by weak enforcement of environmental regulations in Iraq. In addition, ecological innovation mediates the relation between procurement, green supplier collaboration, top management commitment and reverse supply chain. This study exposes how ecological innovation acts as the internal bridge that transforms general sustainability practices into concrete, efficient reverse supply chain operations, addressing a key gap in manufacturing and logistics research.