Towards strategic digital transformation: Manufacturing sustainability via crowdfunding, business model innovation, and supportive digital culture

Digitalization has brought both opportunities and challenges, requiring organizations to strategically transform to remain sustainable. This study used Innovation diffusion and resource-based view Framework, to investigate the sequential mediation framework, how strategic digital orientation drives sustainable performance via the mediators of crowdfunding and digital business model innovation, as well as the moderating role of digital organizational culture. Data was collected from 373 executives level employees in Chinese manufacturing SMEs and analyzed using a hybrid SEM-ANN approach. Results demonstrate crowdfunding mediates the link between digital orientation and sustainability. Moreover, business model innovation sequentially mediates the relationships between digital orientation, crowdfunding, and sustainability. In addition, digital organizational culture moderates the link between strategic digital orientation, business model transformation, and crowdfunding. This study offers an enriched understanding of sustainable business practices within the context of SME's and provides useful insights for practitioners, academia and investors striving to boost sustainable growth in SME's sector.