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Based on the dynamic capability view, this study aims to draw for the first time the missing link between big data analytics capabilities (BDAC) on both green absorptive capacity (GAC) and green entrepreneurship orientation (GEO). It is theoretically necessary to address how BDAC levels up the GAC to achieve the same level of GEO and then respond to their green business agenda. In addition, the study introduces knowledge sharing (KS) and green organizational ambidexterity (GOA) as potential moderating factors in the relationship between GEO and eco-innovation and explores the mediation role of GAC in the BDAC–GEO relationship.

The study collected 268 questionnaires from employees working in Chinese manufacturing firms using a self-administered survey and cross-sectional research design. The study applied SmartPLS to analyze the obtained data.

The findings revealed that BDAC positively and significantly influences GAC and GEO, positively impacting eco-innovation. The KS and GOA's moderation effect strengthens the relationship between GEO and eco-innovation. GAC partially mediates the relationship between BDAC and GEO.

The study advises firms to invest heavily in developing technological aspects of BDAC as a dynamic strategic capability that facilitates tracking and anticipating the future behavior changes of customers, competitors and market demands. BDAC also allows firms to upgrade and reconfigure their dynamic capabilities by responding to managerial, operational and strategic necessities. BDAC is necessary to increase GAC's impact and help drive GEO's eco-business agenda. Notably, the study gave superior attention to KS and GOA as a backbone of GEO to improve eco-innovation economic and managerial outcomes.

The study highlights the necessity to upgrade and integrate technological aspects of BDAC within firms' GEO to enhance green practices. Significantly, green business practices changed quickly as customers' needs and eco-markets fluctuated; BDAC is the crucial dynamic capability fostering GAC and entrepreneurs' green mindset to deal with environmental challenges. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is to predict the potential effect of BDAC on both GAC and GEO. BDAC helps firms to develop GEO eco-business agenda and balance green growth with green issues.

This study examines green absorptive capacity as an important intervening variable that elucidates the relationship between green supply chain management (GSCM) practices (specifically, green purchasing, customer cooperation and investment recovery) and firm performance.

Drawing from the theoretical underpinnings of the natural-resource-based view theory and information processing theory, a research model is developed and tested using data obtained from 368 manufacturing firms in Ghana. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that green purchasing, customer cooperation and investment recovery have a direct positive and significant effect on firm performance. Additionally, green purchasing and customer cooperation have a positive and significant effect on green absorptive capacity but investment recovery does not. Further, the results show that the paths from green purchasing and customer cooperation to firm performance are positively mediated by green absorptive capacity.

The study reveals to supply chain managers that green absorptive capacity is an important conduit through which firms can achieve enhanced firm performance from GSCM initiatives.

This study makes a contribution by integrating the absorptive capacity literature and green management literature and establishes green absorptive capacity as a mechanism through which GSCM practices enhance firm performance.

With technological innovation elements and the competitive market environment becoming increasingly complex, numerous firms utilize network embeddedness to achieve and sustain innovation. However, empirical research has not conclusively established which form of network embeddedness more effectively facilitates corporate innovation. Drawing on the heterogeneous network resources perspective, this study explores the impact of market network embeddedness, technology network embeddedness and their synergy on the green innovation performance of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, it investigates the moderating role of resource orchestration capability in these relationships.

Through an online questionnaire survey of Chinese manufacturing SMEs, 293 sample data were collected, and the hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis.

The results indicate that market and technology network embeddedness significantly enhance green innovation performance, with the former exerting a more significant impact. Furthermore, the synergy between market and technology network embeddedness positively influences green innovation performance. Additionally, resource orchestration capability strengthens the positive effects of both market and technology network embeddedness on green innovation performance, while the moderating effect of resource orchestration capability on the relationship between the synergy of the two and green innovation performance was insignificant.

The study faced many limitations, such as collecting primary data, which relied on a questionnaire only, using cross-sectional data and examining only manufacturing SMEs.

Based on the heterogeneous network resources perspective and integrating social network theory and resource orchestration theory, this study explores the impact of network embeddedness on the green innovation performance of manufacturing SMEs, which sheds new light on the network embeddedness research framework and also enriches the antecedents of green innovation. In addition, this study provides implications on how manufacturing SMEs effectively utilize network embeddedness and resource orchestration capability to enhance green innovation performance.

The organization of services can affect the adoption of sustainable practices within the relationship between a buyer (e.g. a shipper) and a supplier (e.g. a logistics service provider–LSP). The purpose of this paper is to analyse, within this relationship, the mechanisms affecting collaboration between shippers and LSPs towards adopting green logistics practices to reduce the negative environmental effects of logistics processes. The authors take the perspective of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent – although less investigated than large enterprises – a relevant field of investigation given their impact on the environmental sustainability of logistics processes.

The authors conducted a multiple case-study investigation on a set of dyads involving shippers and LSPs. The authors explored the antecedents shaping the approach to sustainability in logistics and, adopting the absorptive capacity (AC) theory, the learning and knowledge transfer processes leading to the adoption of green practices.

Collaboration between shippers and LSPs for better sustainability in logistics seems not to work when relationships are limited to simple annual (or pluriannual) contracts, and when shippers do not show ambition to improve the level of sustainability of their logistics processes (regardless of whether they show an interest in general sustainability matters). On the other hand, successful cases show higher commitment in the dyadic relationship with respect to improving logistics sustainability, good levels of communication and a more structured process of knowledge sharing, enabled by IT integration, shared performance monitoring, and creation of inter-organizational teams.

While most of the existing research focuses on the perspective of shippers or LSPs, this work is original since it explores collaborative mechanisms within a buyer-supplier relationship simultaneously taking the perspective of both parties, according to the lens of the AC. It identifies directions for improving collaboration within the shipper-LSP relationship in the context of SMEs to foster the adoption of collaborative green logistics practices to impact sustainability positively.

This study investigates economic sustainability through orientation and absorptive capacity.

The researchers developed a conceptual framework based on vigorous literature for this investigation. This study targeted managers from Pakistan's SME sector as respondents and employed cross-sectional data. In total, the authors based this study's findings on 192 valid cases.

The structural equation modeling (SEM) results highlight that innovation orientation (IO), customer orientation (CO), supplier orientation (SO), network orientation (NO) and absorptive capacity (AC) have significant effects on economic sustainability (ES). Moreover, this study's findings show that ES significantly predicts environmental sustainability (ENS). Finally, the results also demonstrate that ES and ENS positively and substantially affect financial performance (FP).

This study's findings help SMEs continue sustainable business practices by avoiding adverse environmental effects and ongoing climate changes. This study's findings contribute also to the manufacture of eco-friendly environmental products to reduce the contamination of the environment. Financial institutions and policymakers would boost SME owners' capacity and the obtainability of financial resources to improve Pakistani SMEs’ sustainable economic and environmental performance.

This study's findings help to enrich environmental and economic sustainability and, more significantly, for developing countries.

Drawing upon a systematic literature review in new technology, innovation transfer and diffusion theories, and from interviews with technology leaders in digital transformation programs in the US Oil & Gas (O&G) industry, the authors explore the relationships among O&G industry dynamics, organization's absorptive capacity and resource commitment for new digital technology adoption-implementation process.

The authors employed the empirical survey method to gather the data (a sample size of 172) in the US O&G industry and used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the measurement model for validity and reliability and the conceptual model for hypothesized structural relationships.

The results provide support for the study’s causal model of adoption and implementation with positive and direct relationships between the initiation and trial stages, between the trial stages and the evaluation of effective outcomes and between the effective outcomes and the effective implementation stages of digital technologies. The results also reveal partial mediating relationships of industry dynamics, absorptive capacity and resource commitment between respective stages.

Based on the current study's findings, managers are recommended to pay attention to the evolving industry dynamics during the initiation stage of new digital technology adoption, to utilize the organization's knowledge-based absorptive capacity during digital technology trial and selection stages and to support the digital technology implementation project when the adoption decision of a particular digital technology has been made.

The empirical research contributes literature on digital technology adoption and implementation by identifying and demonstrating the importance of industry dynamics, absorptive capacity and resource commitment factors as mediating variables at various stages of the adoption-implementation process and empirically validating a process-based causal model of digital technology adoption and a successful implementation project that has been missing in the current body of literature on digital transformation.

This paper reviews the literature on the business models of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It seeks to examine the profile, conceptual and intellectual structure of the literature whilst leveraging the findings to suggest promising future paths to advance our knowledge on business models of SMEs.

The study resorts to a systematic literature review that conducts descriptive, bibliometric (i.e. co-word occurrence analysis and bibliographic coupling of documents analysis) and content analyses to review the literature on business models of SMEs. The research protocol included 301 articles collected in the Web of Science (WoS) database in the descriptive and bibliometric analyses. The bibliometric analysis was performed using the VOSviewer software.

The descriptive analysis portrayed the profile of this research stream. The systematisation of the co-word occurrence analysis describes the four clusters that comprise the conceptual structure of this research field. The content analysis of the bibliographic coupling of documents’ clusters portrays the seven clusters that involve the intellectual structure of this research area.

The integrated and holistic approach adopted in this study provides a detailed overview of the literature on business models of SMEs. We propose an integrative framework for the literature that bridges the main themes that form the conceptual and intellectual structure of this field of research. A comprehensive agenda for future research is suggested and implications for theory, policy and practice are stated.

The current study aims to ascertain how green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO) affects green innovation performance (GIP) through the mediating mechanism of the knowledge creation process (KCP) and whether or not these associations can be strengthened or hampered by the moderating impacts of resources orchestration capabilities (ROC).

The research used data from managers at various levels in 154 manufacturing enterprises in Pakistan to evaluate the relationships among the constructs using hierarchical regression analysis and moderated mediation approach.

The study indicates that GEO substantially impacts firms' GIP. GEO and GIP's relationship is partially mediated by two KCP dimensions: knowledge integration (KI) and knowledge exchange (KE). Furthermore, ROC amplifies not only the effects of GEO on KE but also the effects of KE on GIP. The moderated mediation results demonstrate that KE has a greater mediating influence on GEO and GIP when ROC is higher.

To better understand GEO's advantages and significance, future studies should look into the possible moderating mechanisms of environmental, organizational culture/green capability in the association between GEO, KCP and GIP.

The research helps expand the field of green entrepreneurship and GIP literature by providing a deeper knowledge of GEO and offering insight into how to boost GI in manufacturing firms.

This research helps fill in knowledge gaps in the field by delving further into the mechanisms by which GEO promotes GIP, both directly and indirectly, via the mediating role of KCP and the moderating impacts of ROC.

Previous studies have shown that the application of information technology (IT) can help break through the innovation boundaries of firms and has undoubtedly become a key enabler of collaborative innovation. These studies, however, are mainly based on theoretical analysis and case studies, and little is empirically known about the relationship between IT investments and collaborative innovation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically explore how firms' IT investments affect the firms' collaborative innovation performance. The authors also examine the moderating roles of the top management team's (TMT's) educational background and absorptive capacity in this relationship.

The authors collected data on 2,097 listed Chinese manufacturing companies and used the ordinary least squares (OLS) method to perform regression analysis. In addition, the authors conducted robustness tests using the propensity score matching (PSM) method and the instrumental variable method.

The results show that the relationship between IT investments and collaborative innovation is inverted, U-shaped and curvilinear. In addition, the TMT's educational background and absorptive capacity positively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between IT investments and collaborative innovation.

The study's findings on the relationship between IT investments and collaborative innovation differ from previous mainstream findings that recognized a positive linear relationship. The authors' findings deepen the understanding of the dual role of IT investments. Moreover, this research helps expand the contingency perspective in IT investments and collaborative innovation research.

This study aims to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on national digital capability, specifically differentiating the impact between FDI greenfield and mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The research also investigates factors shaping digital capabilities, encompassing government transparency and absorptive capability, while exploring the mediating influence of absorptive capability in the FDI–digital capability relationship.

An econometric model has been developed to examine the interrelationship between national digital capability, FDI inflows, national absorptive capability and government transparency. The data set encompasses 55 countries over a period of nine years (2013–2021). National digital capability data is derived from the well-established index published by the World Competitive Centre (WCC). The sources of the explanatory variables align with standard practices, drawing from reputable institutions (UNCTAD and the World Bank, among others).

The findings reveal a significant positive impact of FDI, particularly in greenfield investments, on national digital capability. Government transparency and research and development (R&D) investment are crucial factors contributing to digital capabilities. Additionally, the absorptive capacity, reflected by R&D investment, also emerges as a potential moderating factor, influencing the impact of FDI inflows on digital capabilities.

The results recommend that policymakers and stakeholders should carefully consider the role of FDI, especially in greenfield investments, as a catalyst for enhancing national digital capability. The findings also underscore the significance of promoting government transparency and directing investments towards R&D to nurture digital capabilities. Moreover, understanding the mediating role of absorptive capability can inform strategies aimed at optimizing the impact of FDI on digital capabilities.

This study contributes uniquely to the existing literature by being the first to systematically explore the influence of FDI on national digital capability. Furthermore, it presents innovative empirical findings on the role of absorptive capability in enhancing the FDI impact on national digital capability, an area that remains relatively uncharted in current literature.