From Stakeholder Trust to Value: Linking Sustainable Innovation and Shared Value in Turbulent Environments

Abstract

While manufacturing sector enterprises are encouraged to engage in sustainable innovation (SI) to reduce their carbon footprint and mitigate negative ecological impacts, there remains a need for empirical evidence on the effects of SI. Considering this, we investigate how SI forms shared value creation in the Chinese companies, highlighting the role of stakeholder trust and environmental turbulence as mediators and moderators. Grounded in the resource-based view and signalling theory, we drive and test a moderated–mediated model employing cross-sectional data from 437 companies analyzed through structural equation modelling. The findings involve a significant impact of SI on stakeholder trust and shared value creation, with stakeholder trust serving as a key mechanism through which SI translates into joint business and social benefits. In addition, environmental turbulence enhances the link between SI and stakeholder trust, underscoring that SI serves as a credible source under conditions of uncertainty. The results enrich strategy- and sustainability-centred scholarly endeavours by bridging capability- and relational-based approaches, while also providing practicing managers with insights on how SI helps establish trustworthiness and create value in turbulent contexts.