When Does Sustainability Translate into Supply Chain Logistics Performance? The Moderating Role of National Digital-Technological Readiness

This study examines whether national digital technological readiness moderates the relationship between national sustainability performance and supply chain logistics performance. Using a panel of 157 countries across six biennial waves from 2010 to 2023 (N = 850), with every predictor measured two years before the wave it explains, drawn from the World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), the World Bank Sovereign ESG indicators, and the UNCTAD Frontier Technology Readiness Index (FTRI), we estimate a hybrid within-between panel model that separates durable cross-country differences from within-country change, with sustainability performance measured through three separately constructed environmental, social, and governance dimensions. Sustainability performance relates positively to logistics performance between countries, and the association strengthens with readiness. The association becomes statistically significant only above a readiness threshold on the FTRI scale, below which every low-income country in the sample falls. The moderating effect is driven by the social and governance dimensions rather than the environmental dimension. It operates on the sub-dimensions that domestic institutions govern, most notably customs and infrastructure, while disappearing for international shipping. The between-country interaction remains stable across alternative moderator definitions, alternative measure constructions, an expanded control set, and a permutation placebo test. This moderation follows the continuous level of readiness rather than income group boundaries. Grounded in Dynamic Capabilities Theory, the findings suggest that digital readiness functions as the capability through which sustainability investments translate into realized logistics performance, and they locate a readiness threshold with direct implications for the sequencing of development policy.