Green Intellectual Capital: Boosting Sustainability via Innovation, Value Creation & Resource Efficiency

Abstract

In today's environmentally conscious marketplace, achieving business
sustainability is paramount for manufacturing firms. This pressure is particularly
acute in developing nations like Pakistan, where balancing economic growth with
environmental responsibility presents unique challenges. Hence this study delves
into the critical relationship between green intellectual capital (GIC) and business
sustainability in Pakistan's manufacturing sector. The researcher also examined the
mediating effects of green innovation, value creation, and resource efficiency on
this association. Employing a survey instrument, data is collected from large scale
manufacturing firms located in three different industrial cities of Pakistan through
convenient sampling. Smart PLS SEM was used to explore the hypothesized
relationships and the mechanisms through which GIC impacts business
sustainability via mediating variables. The results confirmed all hypotheses as
statistically significant. The first hypothesis showed a positive and significant
relationship between GIC and business sustainability (β = 0.101, p < 0.05). The
second hypothesis demonstrated that value creation effectively mediates the
relationship between GIC and business sustainability (β = 0.191, p < 0.05). The
third and fourth hypothesis found that green innovation and Resource efficiency
both significantly mediates between green intellectual capital and business
sustainability with (B=0.183, p<0.05) and (B=0.120, p<0.05) respectively. Hence
all the hypotheses were supported. These findings hold significant implications for
Pakistani manufacturing firms, offering valuable insights into strengthening their
environmental practices and achieving long-term sustainability. However, the
applicability of these findings to other sectors or countries may require further
investigation. Further research employing more robust sampling techniques can
enhance the generalizability of the findings