AI-Enabled Sustainability Engagement and Organizational Resilience: The Mediating Role of Green Innovation Capability and the Moderating Effects of Managerial Capability and Environmental Turbulence

Abstract

This study examines how AI-enabled sustainability engagement enhances organizational resilience through green innovation capability within a dynamic capabilities framework. Drawing on time-lagged survey data from 812 industrial firms across Canada, the United States, and Mexico, we test a moderated mediation model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that sustainability engagement significantly strengthens green innovation capability, which in turn enhances organizational resilience. The direct effect of sustainability engagement on resilience is marginal, indicating that adaptive stability primarily emerges through innovation-based capability development. Furthermore, dynamic managerial capability strengthens the relationship between sustainability engagement and green innovation, while environmental turbulence amplifies the effect of green innovation on resilience. The model explains substantial variance in both green innovation capability (47%) and organizational resilience (43%). By conceptualizing sustainability engagement as a digitally augmented environmental capability rather than a symbolic commitment, this study advances understanding of how firms build resilience under technological and regulatory instability.