IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/teinso/v74y2023ics0160791x23001069.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Intelligent automation implementation and corporate sustainability performance: The enabling role of corporate social responsibility strategy

Author

Listed:
  • Ghobakhloo, Morteza
  • Asadi, Shahla
  • Iranmanesh, Mohammad
  • Foroughi, Behzad
  • Mubarak, Muhammad Faraz
  • Yadegaridehkordi, Elaheh

Abstract

Although Intelligent Automation (IA) represents the future of business automation, the organizational implementation and sustainability performance of this emerging technological innovation is vastly understudied. Understanding the implications of IA for sustainability is critical since leveraging these technologies shapes operations and policies that can promote sustainable digitalization and automation practices. We study how firms' technological, organizational, environmental, and human resource contexts impact IA implementation. The study further explains how IA may associate with the firm's triple bottom line while accounting for the moderating role of corporate social responsibility strategy. The study surveyed 207 multinational firms in 2022 and used partial least square-structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships. Results showed that IA implementation is mainly determined by the characteristics of the firm's internal environment, such as absorptive capacity, employee socio-behavioral concerns, and social capital competency. IA may offer valuable opportunities for boosting the firm's economic and environmental sustainability performance. Nonetheless, IA is a double-edged sword for social sustainability, harming social values in implementing firms with informal corporate social sustainability strategies. Conversely, firms with formal corporate social sustainability strategy have a significantly higher opportunity to transform the value of IA into social sustainability performance. Findings are expected to assist managers and decision-makers with streamlining an impartial and sustainable transition of organizations toward automation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghobakhloo, Morteza & Asadi, Shahla & Iranmanesh, Mohammad & Foroughi, Behzad & Mubarak, Muhammad Faraz & Yadegaridehkordi, Elaheh, 2023. "Intelligent automation implementation and corporate sustainability performance: The enabling role of corporate social responsibility strategy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:74:y:2023:i:c:s0160791x23001069
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X23001069
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102301?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oeystein Kjoersvik & Andrew Bate, 2022. "Black Swan Events and Intelligent Automation for Routine Safety Surveillance," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 419-427, May.
    2. Nurlan Orazalin & Mady Baydauletov, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility strategy and corporate environmental and social performance: The moderating role of board gender diversity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1664-1676, July.
    3. Natalie Leesakul & Anne-Marie Oostveen & Iveta Eimontaite & Max L. Wilson & Richard Hyde, 2022. "Workplace 4.0: Exploring the Implications of Technology Adoption in Digital Manufacturing on a Sustainable Workforce," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    4. Lucio Lamberti & Emanuele Lettieri, 2009. "CSR Practices and Corporate Strategy: Evidence from a Longitudinal Case Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 153-168, June.
    5. Amama Shaukat & Yan Qiu & Grzegorz Trojanowski, 2016. "Board Attributes, Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy, and Corporate Environmental and Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(3), pages 569-585, May.
    6. Khogali, Hisham O. & Mekid, Samir, 2023. "The blended future of automation and AI: Examining some long-term societal and ethical impact features," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    7. Brijesh Sivathanu, 2019. "Adoption of Industrial IoT (IIoT) in Auto-Component Manufacturing SMEs in India," Information Resources Management Journal (IRMJ), IGI Global, vol. 32(2), pages 52-75, April.
    8. Christou, Prokopis & Hadjielias, Elias & Simillidou, Aspasia & Kvasova, Olga, 2023. "The use of intelligent automation as a form of digital transformation in tourism: Towards a hybrid experiential offering," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).
    9. Bag, Surajit & Pretorius, Jan Ham Christiaan & Gupta, Shivam & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2021. "Role of institutional pressures and resources in the adoption of big data analytics powered artificial intelligence, sustainable manufacturing practices and circular economy capabilities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    10. Kristof Huysentruyt & Oeystein Kjoersvik & Pawel Dobracki & Elizabeth Savage & Ellen Mishalov & Mark Cherry & Eileen Leonard & Robert Taylor & Bhavin Patel & Danielle Abatemarco, 2021. "Validating Intelligent Automation Systems in Pharmacovigilance: Insights from Good Manufacturing Practices," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 261-272, March.
    11. Ipek Kazancoglu & Muhittin Sagnak & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Yigit Kazancoglu, 2021. "Circular economy and the policy: A framework for improving the corporate environmental management in supply chains," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 590-608, January.
    12. Grybauskas, Andrius & Stefanini, Alessandro & Ghobakhloo, Morteza, 2022. "Social sustainability in the age of digitalization: A systematic literature Review on the social implications of industry 4.0," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Alexandre Moeuf & Samir Lamouri & Robert Pellerin & Simon Tamayo-Giraldo & Estefania Tobon-Valencia & Romain Eburdy, 2020. "Identification of critical success factors, risks and opportunities of Industry 4.0 in SMEs," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(5), pages 1384-1400, March.
    14. Marco Antonio Paula Pinheiro & Daniel Jugend & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Hengky Latan, 2022. "Circular economy‐based new products and company performance: The role of stakeholders and Industry 4.0 technologies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 483-499, January.
    15. Müller, Julian M. & Buliga, Oana & Voigt, Kai-Ingo, 2021. "The role of absorptive capacity and innovation strategy in the design of industry 4.0 business Models - A comparison between SMEs and large enterprises," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 333-343.
    16. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    17. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    18. Raguseo, Elisabetta, 2018. "Big data technologies: An empirical investigation on their adoption, benefits and risks for companies," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 187-195.
    19. Gao, Yang & Liu, Bei & Yu, Lili & Yang, Haoran & Yin, Shijiu, 2019. "Social capital, land tenure and the adoption of green control techniques by family farms: Evidence from Shandong and Henan Provinces of China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Naoum Tsolakis & Dimitris Zissis & Spiros Papaefthimiou & Nikolaos Korfiatis, 2022. "Towards AI driven environmental sustainability: an application of automated logistics in container port terminals," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(14), pages 4508-4528, July.
    21. Angeloantonio Russo & Antonio Tencati, 2009. "Formal vs. Informal CSR Strategies: Evidence from Italian Micro, Small, Medium-sized, and Large Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 339-353, April.
    22. Amy Van Looy & Joachim Van den Bergh, 2018. "The Effect of Organization Size and Sector on Adopting Business Process Management," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 60(6), pages 479-491, December.
    23. Kichan Nam & Christopher S. Dutt & Prakash Chathoth & Abdelkader Daghfous & M. Sajid Khan, 2021. "The adoption of artificial intelligence and robotics in the hotel industry: prospects and challenges," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 31(3), pages 553-574, September.
    24. Broadstock, David C. & Matousek, Roman & Meyer, Martin & Tzeremes, Nickolaos G., 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility impact firms' innovation capacity? The indirect link between environmental & social governance implementation and innovation performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 99-110.
    25. Knudsen, Eirik Sjåholm & Lien, Lasse B. & Timmermans, Bram & Belik, Ivan & Pandey, Sujit, 2021. "Stability in turbulent times? The effect of digitalization on the sustainability of competitive advantage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 360-369.
    26. Anna Michna & Roman Kmieciak, 2020. "Open-Mindedness Culture, Knowledge-Sharing, Financial Performance, and Industry 4.0 in SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.
    27. Nasir, Osama & Javed, Rana Tallal & Gupta, Shivam & Vinuesa, Ricardo & Qadir, Junaid, 2023. "Artificial intelligence and sustainable development goals nexus via four vantage points," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    28. Morgan Miles & Linda Munilla & Jenny Darroch, 2006. "The Role of Strategic Conversations with Stakeholders in the Formation of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 195-205, December.
    29. Hong Chen & Ling Li & Yong Chen, 2021. "Explore success factors that impact artificial intelligence adoption on telecom industry in China," Journal of Management Analytics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 36-68, January.
    30. Lian, Jiunn-Woei & Yen, David C. & Wang, Yen-Ting, 2014. "An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 28-36.
    31. Nilashi, Mehrbakhsh & Ahmadi, Hossein & Ahani, Ali & Ravangard, Ramin & Ibrahim, Othman bin, 2016. "Determining the importance of Hospital Information System adoption factors using Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 244-264.
    32. Martin Prause, 2019. "Challenges of Industry 4.0 Technology Adoption for SMEs: The Case of Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-13, October.
    33. Yuan, Baolong & Cao, Xueyun, 2022. "Do corporate social responsibility practices contribute to green innovation? The mediating role of green dynamic capability," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    34. Frank, Alejandro G. & Mendes, Glauco H.S. & Ayala, Néstor F. & Ghezzi, Antonio, 2019. "Servitization and Industry 4.0 convergence in the digital transformation of product firms: A business model innovation perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 341-351.
    35. Coombs, Crispin, 2020. "Will COVID-19 be the tipping point for the Intelligent Automation of work? A review of the debate and implications for research," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    36. Abed, Salma S., 2020. "Social commerce adoption using TOE framework: An empirical investigation of Saudi Arabian SMEs," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    37. Kokina, Julia & Blanchette, Shay, 2019. "Early evidence of digital labor in accounting: Innovation with Robotic Process Automation," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    38. Chatterjee, Sheshadri & Rana, Nripendra P. & Dwivedi, Yogesh K. & Baabdullah, Abdullah M., 2021. "Understanding AI adoption in manufacturing and production firms using an integrated TAM-TOE model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    39. Cubric, Marija, 2020. "Drivers, barriers and social considerations for AI adoption in business and management: A tertiary study," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rasheedul Haque & Abdul Rahman bin S. Senathirajah & Md. Ibrahim Khalil & Sayeeduz Zafar Qazi & Saif Ahmed, 2024. "A Structural Path Analysis Bangladeshi SMEs’ Sustainability through Social Media Marketing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Dey, Prasanta Kumar & Albores, Pavel & Emrouznejad, Ali, 2022. "Analysis of the adoption of emergent technologies for risk management in the era of digital manufacturing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    2. Xu, Yong & Zhao, Xin & Wang, Jian & Xie, Peijun, 2023. "Clarifying the dispute of corporate social responsibility: Evidence from green technological innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Gupta, Somya & Ghardallou, Wafa & Pandey, Dharen Kumar & Sahu, Ganesh P., 2022. "Artificial intelligence adoption in the insurance industry: Evidence using the technology–organization–environment framework," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    4. Liu, Feng & Huang, Wanying & Zhang, Jing & Fang, Mingjie, 2024. "Corporate social responsibility in family business: Using machine learning to uncover who is doing good," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Cuevas-Romo, Ana & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Díaz-Acevedo, Natalie & Albores, Pavel & Despoudi, Stella & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Dey, Prasanta, 2022. "The role of circular economy principles and sustainable-oriented innovation to enhance social, economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Mexican SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    6. Basile, Vincenzo & Tregua, Marco & Giacalone, Massimiliano, 2024. "A three-level view of readiness models: Statistical and managerial insights on industry 4.0," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Liu, Xiaoqian & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Zhao, Shikuan & Wang, Long, 2024. "The impact of government environmental attention on firms’ ESG performance: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(PA).
    8. Mariani, Marcello M. & Machado, Isa & Magrelli, Vittoria & Dwivedi, Yogesh K., 2023. "Artificial intelligence in innovation research: A systematic review, conceptual framework, and future research directions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    9. Srivastava, Deepak Kumar & Kumar, Vikas & Ekren, Banu Yetkin & Upadhyay, Arvind & Tyagi, Mrinal & Kumari, Archana, 2022. "Adopting Industry 4.0 by leveraging organisational factors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    10. Vishwakarma, Laxmi Pandit & Singh, Rajesh Kr & Mishra, Ruchi & Demirkol, Denizhan & Daim, Tugrul, 2024. "The adoption of social robots in service operations: A comprehensive review," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Denis Cormier & Luania Gutierrez & Michel Magnan, 2024. "The link between CSR performance and CSR disclosure quality: does board diversity matter?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(1), pages 237-263, March.
    12. Juliet Orji, Ifeyinwa & Ojadi, Frank & Kalu Okwara, Ukoha, 2022. "The nexus between e-commerce adoption in a health pandemic and firm performance: The role of pandemic response strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 616-635.
    13. Lars Hornuf & Maximilian Meiler, 2024. "Factors Driving Adoption of Humanoid Service Robots in Banks," CESifo Working Paper Series 11366, CESifo.
    14. Ali Uyar & Cemil Kuzey & Merve Kilic & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2021. "Board structure, financial performance, corporate social responsibility performance, CSR committee, and CEO duality: Disentangling the connection in healthcare," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1730-1748, November.
    15. Felipe Arenas-Torres & Miguel Bustamante-Ubilla & Roberto Campos-Troncoso, 2021. "The Incidence of Social Responsibility in the Adoption of Business Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    16. Yue Vaughan & Yinyoung Rhou & Yoon Koh & Manisha Singal, 2024. "Slack resources and employee-centered corporate social responsibility in restaurant companies," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 592-614, May.
    17. Fosso Wamba, Samuel & Queiroz, Maciel M. & Trinchera, Laura, 2024. "The role of artificial intelligence-enabled dynamic capability on environmental performance: The mediation effect of a data-driven culture in France and the USA," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    18. Oesterreich, Thuy Duong & Anton, Eduard & Teuteberg, Frank & Dwivedi, Yogesh K, 2022. "The role of the social and technical factors in creating business value from big data analytics: A meta-analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 128-149.
    19. Dewan Muktadir‐Al‐Mukit & Firoz Haroon Bhaiyat, 2024. "Impact of corporate governance diversity on carbon emission under environmental policy via the mandatory nonfinancial reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1397-1417, February.
    20. Pramanik, Paritosh & Jana, Rabin K. & Ghosh, Indranil, 2024. "AI readiness enablers in developed and developing economies: Findings from the XGBoost regression and explainable AI framework," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:74:y:2023:i:c:s0160791x23001069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/technology-in-society .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.