Green technology, policy and sustainable finance nexus with SDG-12: Moderating effects of stakeholder awareness

The world is currently grappling with unparalleled environmental and social challenges that threaten sustainable development. Among these challenges, the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal-12 (SDG-12), which focuses on responsible consumption and production, is especially crucial. Thus, this study aims to investigate the impact of key factors, including green technology, policy and governance, access to sustainable finance, and stakeholder awareness, on SDG-12 by collecting 359 responses from pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh. Employing a multi-method approach that integrates Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), the research investigates both direct effects and moderating influences of stakeholder awareness on the relationships among the variables. The results demonstrate significant direct effects of all predictor variables on SDG-12, with access to sustainable finance exhibiting the highest impact, followed closely by green technology, stakeholder awareness, and policy and governance. Furthermore, the moderating analysis reveals that stakeholder awareness significantly strengthens the relationships between the predictor variables and SDG-12, highlighting its crucial role in promoting sustainable practices. The ANN results rank sustainable finance as the most critical factor, affirming the consistent importance of these variables across different analytical frameworks. This research contributes to the literature by offering insights into the moderating effects of stakeholder awareness within the context of stakeholder theory, providing valuable theoretical and practical implications for policymakers and practitioners in advancing sustainability initiatives.