Reducing marine emissions through ship−shore environmental leadership: a multilevel model for policy and management in shipping

With increasing emission reduction pressures and regulatory requirements in the global shipping industry, improving the environmental performance of crew members has become critical for sustainable development. While technological advances have been highly discussed, the role of management factors, particularly leadership, in crew members’ environmental behavior has not been explored in depth. This study develops a multilevel model based on Social Cognitive Theory to investigate how the Environmental Leadership of both shipboard crews and shore-based managers jointly influences Seafarers’ Sustainable Environmental Behavior through social cognitive mechanisms. Multi-level structural equation modeling of the survey data from several shipping companies shows that ship-shore environmental leadership affects crew behavior via different pathways: Shore-Based Environmental Leadership not only indirectly influences behavior by shaping the Onboard Environmental Climate but also has a significant cross-level direct effect on crew behavior. Seafarers’ Environmental Leadership has a significant direct effect on behavior, as well as an indirect effect through enhancing individual cognitive factors such as Environmental Self-Efficacy and Result Outcome. Exploratory evidence suggests synergistic effects between the two forms of leadership: shore-based leadership appears to positively moderate the relationship between Environmental Self-Efficacy and Seafarers’ Sustainable Environmental Behavior, and Onboard Environmental Climate appears to positively moderate the relationship between Seafarers’ Environmental Leadership and Environmental Self-Efficacy. These cross-level moderations warrant confirmation with larger samples. This study reveals a dual-pathway mechanism of “environmental shaping” and “individual empowerment”, along with its contextual dependence. This confirms the importance of “ship-shore synergistic leadership” in accomplishing environmental goals in distributed organizations. Our findings provide theoretical foundation and practical insights for shipping companies to optimize ship-shore collaborative management mechanism and advance green transformation.