The role of sustainable intellectual capital and organizational resilience in shaping sustainable innovation and performance: A multi-industry study in China

Organizations increasingly recognize that achieving sustainable organizational performance requires more than possessing strategic resources; it depends on their effective transformation into innovation capabilities. Drawing upon the Resource-Based View (RBV), Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV), and Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT), this study develops and tests an integrated framework examining the effects of Knowledge Management Capabilities (KMC) and Sustainable Intellectual Capital (SIC) on Sustainable Organizational Performance (SOP) through the mediating role of Sustainable Innovation (SI) and the moderating role of Organizational Resilience (OR). Data were collected from 267 managers across diverse organizations and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that KMC and SIC do not exert significant direct effects on SOP; instead, both variables significantly enhance sustainable innovation, which subsequently improves sustainable organizational performance. The mediation analysis indicates that sustainable innovation fully mediates the relationships between KMC, SIC, and SOP. Furthermore, organizational resilience significantly strengthens the positive relationship between sustainable innovation and sustainable organizational performance, demonstrating that resilient organizations are better positioned to convert sustainability-oriented innovations into superior performance outcomes. By integrating RBV, NRBV, and DCT into a sequential capability-building framework, this study extends existing theory by demonstrating that sustainability-oriented organizational resources create value only when transformed into innovation capabilities under resilient organizational conditions. The findings also provide practical guidance for managers by emphasizing investments in knowledge management, sustainable intellectual capital, innovation capabilities, and organizational resilience as complementary drivers of long-term sustainable performance.