Enhancing Low‐Carbon Operations Management Practice in China Through Stakeholder Engagement and Digital Innovation: A Hybrid SEM‐ANN Approach

This research uses the stakeholder theory and dynamic capabilities theory to evaluate the relationship between stakeholder pressure, digital innovation, motivation, and the adoption of low-carbon operation management in enhancing manufacturing firms’ carbon reduction performance. A web-based survey of 412 Chinese manufacturing firms was used to analyze our conceptual model. This investigation implemented a hybrid approach known as structural equation modelling-artificial neural network (SEM-ANN) that involved two phases. Our research indicates that stakeholder pressures significantly motivate the emergence of low-carbon operations management practices and digital innovation, which has an auspicious correlation with motivation and low-carbon operation management. The study found mixed results regarding the impact of motivations on adopting low-carbon operations. While motivations significantly affected the adoption of low-carbon logistics, they did not significantly impact the emergence of low-carbon processes. Furthermore, the emergence of low-carbon products negatively impacted the firm’s carbon reduction performance, while low-carbon processes and logistics positively impacted the firm’s carbon reduction performance. A significant relationship between the adoption of digital innovation and low-carbon operations management practices, as well as the carbon reduction performance of the firm, are significantly correlated. Stakeholder pressure significantly impacts a firm’s carbon reduction performance. A contribution of the study is to advance stakeholder theory and dynamic capabilities theory frameworks in the context of sustainability initiatives for industries.