PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The study examines the relationship between green orientation, big data analytics capability, and green absorptive capacity in enhancing sustainable innovation, with green management practices serving as a mediating variable in response to the increasing demand for sustainable innovation. This study bridges an existing knowledge gap by providing insights into the interplay between internal strategic and technological capabilities that drive eco-innovation in SMEs from the perspectives of the Dynamic Capability View, Natural Resource-Based View, and Practice-Based View. A positivist, hypothetical-deductive approach was adopted, and data were collected from 340 employees of manufacturing SMEs in Bangladesh using stratified random sampling. Data were analysed using SPSS v26 and SmartPLS 4.0. These results provide empirical evidence that green orientation and big data analytics capability can significantly facilitate the development of green innovation, while green absorptive capacity influences green innovation indirectly through the promotion of green management practices. The mediating role of green management practices indicates that they play an important role in translating strategic orientation into innovation outcomes. The study provides important implications for investors and policymakers by highlighting the need to invest and develop sustainability-oriented information-based competencies and management systems within SMEs. These constructs have been integrated and lean into an integrated framework that is distinctive in that it captures the interactive effects and strategic relevance of internal capabilities in achieving sustainable competitiveness.