Supportive or exhausting: How resources synergize in network embedding innovation process to improve sustainability

As sustainability improvement becomes increasingly complex and uncertain, firms are increasingly dependent on networked innovation capability to integrate dispersed knowledge and technologies from external entities. However, the transformation from networked innovation capability to sustainability involves a procedural mechanism that requires effective synergy among limited multidimensional financial and digital resources. This procedural mechanism and the role of resource synergy within it remain underexplored. Based on network embeddedness theory, innovation value chain theory, and resource synergy theory, this study constructs an integrated “Networked Innovation Capabilities-Process-Resources” synergy framework and employs stepwise regression analysis on a sample of 165 new energy vehicle firms. Results show that: (1) Networked knowledge innovation capability promotes sustainability through a procedural mechanism involving networked technology innovation capability and market value. (2) Multidimensional financial resources exert heterogeneous effects across different links of the procedural mechanism, with financial leverage and profitability showing significantly positive moderating effects, while operational efficiency shows no significant effect. (3) Multidimensional digital resources exert dual supportive or exhausting influences on the synergistic effects of financial resources, where digital development orientation provides consistent support, whereas digital software and hardware investment exhibit both supportive and exhausting effects contingent upon the specific link of the procedural mechanism. This study elucidates how networked innovation capability affects sustainability through a procedural mechanism and how diverse yet limited resources synergize in this process. It provides theoretical and practical insights for firms and governments to promote networked innovation capability and optimize the allocation of financial and digital resources in innovation process for sustainability.