Abstract

Small and medium enterprises cannot achieve environmental sustainability goals in isolation. They need to acquire capabilities to perform within networks of professional and social relations with other organizations. However, network relationships are often insufficient due to lack of sustainability in network capability. This multidimensional concept involves four components: coordination, relational skills, partner knowledge, and internal communication. This study proposes a new dimension related to the collaborative environmental relationship. This component addresses an enterprise’s ability to enhance environmental collaboration, share knowledge, and increase environmental awareness. This study, therefore, suggests testing and comparing the five-dimensional scale of network capability with the existing four-dimensional scale, and examining its impact on eco-innovation capability and sustainable performance. This has not been tested previously. Using partial least squares path modelling, this study tests a set of hypothesised relationships that focus on a sample of 237 Tunisian enterprises. The findings reveal that: (1) the sample supports measurement properties of the updated network capability and indicates that the new dimension in network capability research and sustainable development is important and can be added to the finalised network capability construct, (2) network capability, with the updated five dimensions, directly and positively influences eco-innovation capability and sustainable performance, and the impacts are more effective than in the previous four-dimensional construct, and (3) eco-innovation mediates the relationship between network capability with the updated five dimensions and enterprises’ sustainable performance, and the impact is more effective than in the previous four-dimensional construct. Therefore, our study will help strengthen the enterprise’s performance in promoting sustainable development.

Graphic abstract

中文翻译：

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研究多维网络能力和生态创新导向对可持续绩效的影响

摘要

中小企业不能孤立地实现环境可持续性目标。他们需要获得在与其他组织的专业和社会关系网络内执行工作的能力。但是，由于缺乏网络能力的可持续性，网络关系常常不足。这个多维概念涉及四个部分：协调，关系技能，合作伙伴知识和内部沟通。这项研究提出了一个与合作环境关系有关的新维度。该组件解决了企业增强环境协作，共享知识和提高环境意识的能力。因此，这项研究建议测试并比较网络功能的5维规模和现有4维规模，并研究其对生态创新能力和可持续绩效的影响。以前尚未测试过。使用偏最小二乘路径建模，本研究测试了一组假设的关系，这些关系集中在237个突尼斯企业的样本上。调查结果表明：（1）该样本支持更新的网络能力的度量属性，并表明网络能力研究和可持续发展中的新维度很重要，可以添加到最终的网络能力构建中；（2）网络能力；在更新了五个维度后，直接和积极地影响了生态创新能力和可持续发展绩效，并且这些影响比以前的四个维度更有效，（3）生态创新介导了网络能力更新后的五个维度与企业可持续绩效之间的关系，其影响要比以前的四个维度更有效。因此，我们的研究将有助于增强企业在促进可持续发展方面的绩效。

图形摘要