THE INTERPLAY OF ADVANCED MANUFACTURING CAPABILITIES BETWEEN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY SELF-EFFICACY, INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN SMES OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

The business field has revolutionized by emerging technological advancements by offering significant opportunities to SME sector to be sustainable. Digital technology self-efficacy and international technological resources have been incorporated for assessing their impact on transform manufacturing capabilities to ensure sustainable development. This research contribute to body of knowledge by expressing the role of digital technology self-efficacy for optimal efficiency in manufacturing capabilities. The research is novel in expressing and investigating the influence of international technological resources on advanced manufacturing capabilities, which further assist in attaining sustainable development programs at the SME sector of diverse categories in Pakistan. The snowball sampling technique was implied for data collection from managers in five major SME hub cities of Pakistan. The collected data was analyzed on Smart PLS 4.0 for measurement model assessment and structural equation model for hypothesized relationship investigation. The study’s finding reported statistically significant relationships between digital technology self-efficacy and advanced manufacturing capabilities, between international technological resources and advanced manufacturing capabilities. The advanced manufacturing capabilities ensure sustainable development programs. Further, the advanced manufacturing capabilities significantly mediates the relationship between exogenous and endogenous constructs. In nutshell, direct and the mediating hypotheses of research framework reported to be statistically significant. The limitations, future research avenue and suggestions for the manager of SME sector are stated to attain sustainability.