Abstract
Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions constitute 75-90% of firms' total carbon footprints yet present a governance paradox: firms are held accountable for emissions they do not directly control. Environmental supply chain management (ESCM) practices represent the primary instruments for extending environmental governance beyond organizational boundaries. Yet despite widespread adoption, aggregate Scope 3 emissions continue rising, suggesting that how practices combine matters more than whether firms adopt them. Prior research examines practices in isolation, neglecting configurational interdependencies. This study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on panel data comprising 239 firm-year observations from U.S. manufacturing firms (2018-2024). Eight ESCM practices serve as conditions; year-over-year change in Scope 3 emission intensity serves as the outcome. Results reveal five distinct upstream and three downstream configurational pathways to emission reduction, confirming equifinality. Monitoring appears in all successful configurations; commitment and management systems function as near-core elements. Upstream pathways exhibit higher enforcement intensity, while downstream pathways rely on collaborative mechanisms, consistent with power-based governance differentiation. Temporal analysis reveals consolidation from diverse experimentation (2019-2020) toward convergent configurations (2023-2024). This study contributes to sustainable supply chain management by demonstrating that ESCM effectiveness derives from configurational complementarity rather than additive accumulation.