Environmental governance mechanisms in shipping firms and their environmental performance

• Discuss measures of environmental governance for shipping operations.
• Study the various environmental governance mechanisms enacted by shipping firms.
• Examine the relationship between environmental governance mechanisms and environmental performance in shipping operations.
• Empirically validate a model to examine the mediating roles of the relational and organizational mechanisms.

A growing number of shipping firms seek to improve their environmental performance in the hope of developing environmentally sustainable shipping operations. Although environmental governance plays an essential role in leading shipping firms to improve their environmental performance, there is scant knowledge on the relationship between environmental governance and environmental performance in the shipping literature. We propose and empirically validate an integrated model to study how various environmental governance mechanisms (i.e., contractual, relational, and organizational) are enacted by shipping firms and their influence on shipping firms’ environmental performance. Our study also examines the mediating roles of the relational and organizational mechanisms on shipping firms’ environmental performance.