Digital green innovation and sustainable performance: integrating digital knowledge sharing with organizational and institutional enablers

Abstract

This study aims to ask how external pressures and a firm’s internal capabilities together relate to sustainable performance in supply chain and logistics firms. This study tests a model in which digital knowledge sharing, absorptive capacity and digital green innovation are the internal routes through which regulatory, normative and managerial pressures connect to environmental, social and economic outcomes. This study tested the model with survey data from 295 supply chain and logistics professionals in the USA, the UK, South Africa and Australia. Participants were recruited through Prolific, an online crowdsourcing platform widely used in behavioral research. All constructs were measured with established multi-item scales on a five-point Likert format, and this study analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling in SmartPLS4. Institutional pressure, top management support and IT infrastructure flexibility are each positively related to knowledge sharing, green innovation and absorptive capacity. Green innovation and absorptive capacity, in turn, show strong positive associations with sustainable performance. Knowledge sharing on its own, however, is not related to sustainable performance. This study adds to the literature on sustainability transitions by showing how external pressures and a firm’s own socio-technical capabilities are jointly related to sustainable performance.