How Responsible Innovation Builds Business Network Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Performance During Global Outbreaks: An Extended Resource-Based View

Abstract

The recent application of responsible innovation has driven firms to become risk-resistant and sustainable in order to counter the effects of global outbreaks like diseases or other severe situations. However, there is little research examining the role of responsible innovation in promoting firms’ sustainable development. Based on the extended resource-based view (ERBV), this article examines the impact of responsible innovation on firms’ sustainable performance via business network resilience. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we use data from 422 Chinese manufacturing firms and find that responsible innovation has a positive effect on firms’ sustainable performance and that business network resilience plays a mediating role in this relationship. Additionally, this article shows that both absorptive capacity and social media adoption not only moderate the relationship between responsible innovation and business network resilience, as well as the relationship between business network resilience and sustainable performance, but that they also moderate the mediating effect of business network resilience on the relationship between responsible innovation and sustainable performance. Using the ERBV perspective, this article contributes to the existing literature by extending current discussions on the relationship between responsible innovation and sustainable performance into the area of business network resilience while also elaborating on the roles of absorptive capacity and social media adoption in moderating this relationship.