Driving sustainability in agri-food supply chains: how coordination, analytic capability, data driven decision-making, agility and innovation shape the future?

Purpose Coordination is a key enabler of sustainability across all tiers of a supply chain through better communication, agile practices and data-driven decision-making. Limited research studies focus on identifying the factors facilitating coordination efforts to achieve sustainability in agri-food supply chains (AFSCs). This study addresses this gap by examining the role of supply chain coordination (SCC) in driving sustainable performance indicators (SPI) within AFSCs, testing the mediating roles of supply chain analytic capability (SCAC), data-driven decision-making (DDDM) and supply chain agility (SCAG), as well as the moderating role of supply chain innovation (SCI). Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from a purposively drawn sample of 205 agri-food firms in Pakistan. The study utilized structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test hypotheses. Findings We found that SCC significantly affects SPI, DDDM and SCAG, while DDDM mediate the SCAC-SPI relationship. However, SCI was found to have a slight negative moderating effect between SCC and SCAG, indicating that the relationship is weakened when capabilities are misaligned. Practical implications At the enterprise level, coordination drives sustainability only when aligned with analytics, data-driven decision-making and agility. Poorly integrated innovation, however, can weaken agility and undermine long-term sustainability. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to show that SCI does not always bring positive results in AFSCs operating in a developing-country context like Pakistan. SCI can weaken agility and sustainability when it isn't properly aligned with a company's existing coordination, analytics and decision-making strengths. Looking at SCC, SCI, SCAC, SCAG, DDDM and SPI together in a moderated-mediation framework, our work extends the Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV) by identifying capability misalignment as a key boundary condition. In doing so, it challenges the assumption that all valuable resources are inherently additive and shows that their benefits depend on how well they fit together. These insights give managers practical guidance on how to synchronize innovation with core capabilities, so it genuinely supports long-term sustainability goals.