Technological management capabilities as a pathway toward green production and green competitive advantage

Purpose Organizations' technological management capabilities (TMC) have emerged as a powerful tool to enable manufacturing firms to deal with environmental issues. This empirical investigation aims to introduce and validate a novel conceptual framework that seeks to uncover the latent relationships among the selected constructs of this study. Organizational TMC could enhance green production (GP) and reinforce the green competitive advantage (GCA) among manufacturing firms. Therefore, this research investigates the role of TMC of firms such as artificial intelligence capability (AIC), big data analytics capability (BDAC) and Internet of things capability (IOTC) in reshaping green innovation (RGI), employee development (ED), GP and GCA. Design/methodology/approach The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling was proposed to test and validate this research’s conceptual model using 463 valid responses from manufacturing under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) umbrella. Findings Our statistical findings confirmed that TMCs such as AIC, BDAC and IOTC supported the GP and CGA. ED and RGI positively correlated to GP. The hypotheses testing results also confirmed the mediating role of ED, RGI and GP and the moderating role of green firm innovativeness capability (GFIC) in the underdeveloped context of the manufacturing industry under the CPEC. Originality/value Moreover, the statistical findings of this study extend the existing literature by validating the possible direct, indirect/mediation and indirect/moderation relationship between TMC and GCA.