The Digital Path to a Dual Win: How Entrepreneurial Leadership and Stakeholder Integration Drive Sustainable Performance

Abstract

While digitalization is recognized as a driver of competitiveness, a critical question remains: how does it simultaneously advance environmental sustainability and profitability? The existing literature offers limited insight into the impact of digitalization on sustainable development. Grounded in the dynamic capabilities view, our study unpacks this relationship by testing a moderated mediation model. We theorize that digitalization enhances both environmental performance (EP) and financial performance (FP) through the mediating mechanism of stakeholder integration, and that this effect is moderated by entrepreneurial leadership (EL). An analysis of survey data from 294 Chinese firms confirms the validity of our framework. The findings show that digitalization has a direct and positive influence on both EP and FP. This effect is partially channeled through stakeholder integration. Significantly, the benefits of digitalization are amplified under high entrepreneurial leadership, which boosts the firm’s capacity for effective stakeholder engagement. By defining a transparent mechanism and a critical contingency, our research provides novel insight into how firms can leverage digital transformation to achieve a “dual-win” for both the planet and profits. Thus, it contributes to the existing literature on innovation, strategy, and entrepreneurship.