Abstract
In the era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), sustainability has been a serious challenge of contemporary small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Using Natural Resource-Based-View (NRBV), the current paper examines the moderated mediation model of the role of information access in the sustainability of SMEs, through the mediating role of access to resource and innovation capability in the relationship between information access and sustainability, and the moderating role of management commitment in the relationship between innovation capability and SME sustainability. This paper gathered data from 222 SMEs in Pakistan. The study used a purposive sampling technique to distribute the survey questionnaire. Smart-PLS software was used to analyze the data. The study finding indicates that access to information affects both sustainability and innovation capability. Moreover, access to resources affects innovation capability, though it did not affect SME sustainability. Furthermore, innovation capability mediates the relationship between access to resources, access to information, and SME sustainability. Additionally, management commitment moderates the relationship between access to information and innovation capability; however, it does not moderate the relationship between access to resources and innovation capability. Practical, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed in the study.
Highlights
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major economic role as they represent around90 percent of organizations and in excess of 70 percent of jobs globally, as indicated by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development [1]
What are the underlying mechanisms that explain why access to resources predicts an small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sustainability? there have been mixed findings on how resources and information access influence firm innovation capability, and as such the current study introduces management commitment to serve as a moderating variable between access to resources and information, and a firm’s innovation capability
According to Labuschagne and Brent [68] business sustainability refers to “adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today, while protecting, sustaining and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future”
Summary
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a major economic role as they represent around. This current study advocates that, SMEs might have little direct control over the environment within which they operate, they do have options vis-à-vis how they construe and react to it The higher their access to needed resources and information, the higher the commitment of the management, and the greater their capability to innovate, the more prepared they will be to overcome hitches and to take charge of circumstances in order to conduct themselves in a more responsible manner, such as through protecting their operational environments. There are studies that relate the variable of the current study in a different fashion, there are limited studies regarding the mediating role of innovation capability and the moderating effect of management commitment on the relationship between information accessibility and resource availability and SME sustainability. This study is based on an analysis of data collected from the SMEs in Pakistan
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