The mediating role of green innovation capability between AI-driven green project management and sustainable project performance including MADANI sustainability in Malaysian green projects

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has become a core enabling factor for raising the standard of sustainable project management, and it can effectively strengthen organizational capacity, innovation levels, and the quality of environmental decision-making. Against this backdrop, this study is an original empirical study focused on organizations implementing green projects in Malaysia. Its core research objective is to explore the impact of AI-driven green project management on sustainable project performance. The study incorporates the following variables: antecedent variable MADANI sustainability orientation, core independent variable AI-driven green project management, mediating variable green innovation capability, moderating variables organizational green agility and green tax incentives, and dependent variable sustainable project performance. This study adopts a quantitative cross-sectional research design, and collected valid samples from 341 practitioners. It uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze the core conceptual model. The results show that the path coefficients and p-values between all core variables reach the threshold for statistical significance. The model’s explained variance for green innovation capability is 41.7%, and its explained variance for sustainable project performance is 49.2%. At the academic level, this study fills the literature gap in the research field of AI-enabled sustainable project management; at the practical level, it provides clear actionable guidance for local Malaysian organizations and policymakers to advance digital transformation and sustainable development initiatives.