Supply chain driven sustainability: ambidexterity, authentic leadership and interorganizational citizenship behavior

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how supply chain strategy affects a firm's sustainability performance and how the strength of that relationship is influenced by managerial authentic leadership (AL) and its associated impact on interorganizational citizenship behavior (ICB). Design/methodology/approach Building on the intersection of three theories: organizational ambidexterity, AL and ICB, a mediated moderation model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling based on the responses from a cross-sectional survey administered by the authors. Findings The results reveal that an ambidextrous supply chain strategy is positively related to firm sustainability performance and this relationship is strengthened by AL. Furthermore, this study finds that this moderating relationship is partially mediated by ICB. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to empirically test the effect of supply chain ambidexterity on sustainability performance by explicitly considering how leadership characteristics can both directly and indirectly affect the efficacy of this relationship. The findings complement existing literature by providing novel insights into the ability of firm supply chain strategy to affect sustainability performance.