Green leaders and global change: Uncovering the drivers of corporate environmental sustainability

Abstract

The growing global pressure for the implementation of sustainable business practices highlights the need for companies, especially those with a significant environmental impact, such as the wine industry, to adopt strategies that promote the transition to a more environmentally friendly economy. The main objective of this research is to examine the impact of green transformational leadership on the environmental performance of wine companies, as well as the role of green organizational culture and green motivation as mediating factors in this relationship. Primary data is analyzed using PLS-SEM technique, which has been obtained from a sample of 196 wine enterprises. The results show positive and significant relationships between the dimensions analyzed, evidencing the influence of effective green leadership on the environmental performance of companies both directly and indirectly, through green organizational culture and green motivation, being underscored how these leaders serve as key change agents in promoting eco-friendly practices and values, and fostering a culture of sustainability within organizations, ensuring that environmental considerations are integral to organizational decision-making processes. This analysis has important theoretical, managerial and policy implications, that underscore the relevance of deepening the analysis of the main factors that reduce the environmental impact of the entrepreneurial activities, of implementing and fostering leadership styles that integrate environmental management into the core of business operations to ensure long-term sustainability of the wine industry, and of developing policies that support green leadership skills development programs to drive the transition to a fully sustainable business environment in both environmental and economic terms.