Dynamic Capabilities, Digitalisation and Supply Chain Resilience for Sustainability: Evidence From Organisational Actors in an African Cotton Value Chain

Abstract

Supply chain resilience has become increasingly critical in turbulent environments, yet limited evidence exists on how dynamic capabilities and digitalisation jointly shape rlesilience and sustainability in resource‐constrained agricultural systems. This study addresses this gap by integrating Dynamic Capability Theory and Resilience Theory into a unified capability–resilience–sustainability framework and examining these relationships within Benin's cotton sector. Using survey data from 464 organisational actors operating across Benin's cotton value chain and a hybrid analytical approach combining PLS‐SEM, Random Forest, XGBoost and Monte Carlo simulation, the findings indicate that sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities significantly strengthen supply chain resilience, with transforming capability exerting the strongest influence. Supply chain resilience mediates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and economic, environmental and social performance, while the structural model explains 54% of the variance in resilience. Digital technology adoption strengthens the effects of sensing and transforming capabilities on resilience, whereas institutional support reinforces the contribution of seizing capability to sustainability performance. Machine‐learning analyses complement the structural model by identifying nonlinear and threshold‐based relationships that extend the SEM findings. The study contributes to the literature by providing evidence that resilience serves as the principal behavioural pathway through which dynamic capabilities support triple‐bottom‐line performance.