From AI resources to sustainable competitive advantage: Building AI-enabled sustainable gastronomy capabilities in restaurants

This study examines the relationships among AI capability, organizational readiness for AI, AI-enabled sustainable gastronomy capability, sustainable food innovation orientation, and sustainable competitive advantage. Data were collected from 400 restaurant decision-makers in Brazil and analyzed using SPSS, AMOS, and the PROCESS Macro. The findings indicate that AI capability and organizational readiness for AI are positively associated with AI-driven operational sustainability and AI-driven customer sustainability experience. Bootstrapped indirect effects further show that these capability dimensions constitute significant pathways linking AI-related resources to sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, sustainable food innovation orientation strengthens the conditional indirect relationships, supporting its role as a boundary condition in AI-enabled capability development. The study extends dynamic capability theory by specifying a contingent capability-building mechanism through which AI-related resources are associated with sustainable competitiveness in restaurant contexts.