Environmental knowledge, regulatory compliance mechanisms, and environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Uganda

This study investigates the mediating effect of regulatory compliance mechanisms on the association between environmental knowledge and environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Uganda. This study was cross-sectional and correlational. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of 254 manufacturing SMEs and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), following Baron and Kenny, as well as bootstrap guidelines, to establish the association between the study variables and the mediating effect of regulatory compliance mechanisms. The study results indicate the following: (1) environmental knowledge and regulatory compliance mechanisms significantly explain the environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing SMEs; (2) environmental knowledge is significantly related to regulatory compliance mechanisms; (3) regulatory compliance mechanisms partially mediate the environmental knowledge and environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing SMEs. This study contributes to the existing literature on environmental sustainability practices as it offers initial empirical evidence on the mediating effect of regulatory compliance mechanisms in the association between environmental knowledge and environmental sustainability practices of manufacturing SMEs.