Technological Capabilities and Institutional Pressures in Green Logistics Adoption: Evidence from an Emerging Economy's Freight Forwarding Sector

[Purpose] This study examines how access to green technologies, institutional pressures, and supply chain collaboration influence green logistics adoption and organizational performance in Vietnam's logistics industry. Motivated by inconsistent findings in prior sustainability research and concerns about model validity in emerging-market studies, the paper integrates the Resource-Based View and Institutional Theory to explain how internal capabilities and external constraints jointly shape sustainability outcomes. [Design/methodology/approach] Data were collected through a structured questionnaire survey, yielding 334 valid responses from logistics firms operating in Vietnam. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS was employed to test direct, moderating, and mediating relationships, supported by bootstrapping. To enhance robustness and address spurious inference concerns, extensive diagnostic tests were conducted, and key results were cross-validated using covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM). [Findings] The results indicate that access to green technologies has a limited direct effect on green logistics adoption, whereas supply chain collaboration significantly enhances adoption and environmental awareness. Institutional pressures primarily influence organizational performance rather than operational adoption decisions. Moderation and mediation analyses show that organizational size and environmental awareness condition and partially transmit the effects of technological access and collaboration. By clarifying how organizational and institutional factors shape sustainability adoption under uncertainty, these findings provide evidence-based insights that support managerial and policy decision-making in Decision Sciences. [Theoretical implications] The study challenges technology-centric explanations of green logistics adoption by demonstrating that organizational and institutional mechanisms play a more decisive role in emerging markets, thereby extending sustainability and logistics theory through a combined moderation–mediation framework. [Practical implications] Logistics firms should complement green technology investments with organizational capability development and supply chain collaboration. Policymakers should strengthen institutional frameworks and support collaborative sustainability initiatives, particularly for small and medium-sized firms. [Originality/value] This study is among the first to integrate extended survey data, dual SEM estimation, comprehensive diagnostics, and moderation–mediation analysis to examine green logistics adoption in an emerging economy, offering robust empirical and methodological contributions to sustainability and decision sciences research.