Constructing Green Organizational Identity: Cultural Meanings, Sustainability Discourse, and Identity Work in Vietnam's Logistics Industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite growing interest in green organizational identity (GOI), existing research has largely treated it as a relatively stable organizational attribute or an antecedent of environmental outcomes, with limited attention to how it is socially constructed within emerging economy contexts. This study examines how GOI is constructed and enacted within Vietnam's logistics industry. Drawing on an interpretive qualitative approach, this study is based on semistructured interviews with nine managers and executives from logistics organizations in Vietnam. The findings show that participants understood sustainability not merely as a managerial or environmental objective but as a culturally embedded process through which they interpreted responsibility, legitimacy and organizational identity. The findings indicate that GOI is understood through organizational culture, sustainability discourse, institutional context, and identity work, as participants described translating global sustainability expectations into locally meaningful narratives and practices. The study contributes to GOI scholarship by conceptualizing GOI as a negotiated and culturally situated process rather than a stable organizational attribute, demonstrating how organizational actors translate external sustainability expectations into locally meaningful identity claims and practices. It further highlights the importance of cultural context in shaping sustainability meanings and responsible organizing within emerging economy settings.