Transforming stakeholder pressure into green brand equity: The mediating role of organizational commitment in Vietnam’s B2B seafood export industry

Vietnam’s seafood export industry faces mounting global sustainability pressures, from the European Commission’s “yellow card” warning on illegal fishing to impending U.S. import bans under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). However, many firms respond with minimal compliance or greenwashing, failing to build genuine Green Brand Equity (GBE). This study integrates Institutional Theory and the Resource-Based View to investigate how stakeholder pressure (coercive, normative, and mimetic) influences the development of GBE, emphasizing the mediating role of Green Organizational Commitment (GOC). The analysis of 412 survey responses from seafood export managers using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling confirmed that stakeholder pressure has a strong positive effect on both GOC and GBE. GOC partially mediates this relationship, indicating that genuine internal commitment transforms external mandates into valuable brand assets. This study contributes to theory by bridging external institutional pressures with internal resource development and extends green branding research into a B2B export context. Practical implications highlight the necessity for Vietnamese seafood firms and policymakers to foster authentic sustainability commitments beyond mere compliance to achieve lasting competitive advantage and brand credibility.