Driving organizational resilience through responsible production in developing economies: the roles of sustainable supply chain integration, dynamic capabilities, and digital transformation

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of responsible production and consumption (RPC) on organizational resilience in the textile sector of Pakistan, with sustainable supply chain integration (SSCI) and dynamic capabilities as mediators, and digital transformation as a moderator. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory (DCT), the research proposes a conceptual framework in which RPC, as a strategic sustainability resource, enhances resilience directly and indirectly through capability- and network-based mechanisms, with digital adoption strengthening these effects. Data were collected from 311 respondents across different managerial levels, including owners/top management, middle management, and operational managers, drawn from major textile hubs in Sindh and Punjab. The study employed a stratified sampling design with access-based respondent selection to ensure representation across managerial levels and firm categories within the textile sector. Analyses were conducted using PLS-SEM and Hayes’ PROCESS models, including 5000 bootstrap samples for mediation testing. Findings reveal that RPC significantly enhances organizational resilience, with both SSCI (β = 0.18) and dynamic capabilities (β = 0.16) serving as partial mediators. Digital transformation positively moderates the relationship between RPC and organizational resilience (β = 0.14), indicating that firms with higher digital adoption leverage responsible production practices more effectively to build resilience. The findings extend DCT by identifying sustainability-oriented resources, network-level integration, capability activation, and digital readiness as interconnected mechanisms and boundary conditions underlying resilience development. The study is significant for emerging economy manufacturing because it demonstrates how textile firms can combine responsible production, supply chain integration, adaptive capabilities, and digitalization to strengthen resilience under volatile conditions. However, the cross-sectional and single-country design limits causal inference and generalizability. Future research should employ longitudinal, cross-country, multisource, and objective performance-based approaches to further validate and extend the proposed framework.