PATHWAYS TO SUSTAINABLE E-COMMERCE PERFORMANCE IN PAKISTAN: THE INTERPLAY OF GREEN GOVERNANCE, ECO-INNOVATIVE MARKETING, CONSUMER TRUST, PLATFORM USEFULNESS, AND REGULATORY PRESSURE

Abstract

Pakistan, along with other developing countries, has experienced an enormous surge in digital commerce. As a direct result of digital commerce's explosive growth in developing countries, there is a new opportunity to create both economic development and environmentally friendly practices (i.e., minimizing the sizeable environmental impacts related to packaging waste, carbon emissions from last-mile delivery, and excessive energy consumption by digital data infrastructure) for digital commerce companies. The purpose of this study is to provide a quantitative measure through empirical analysis of how a company's "green" organizational activities lead to measurable and sustainable business outcomes in a digital marketplace. More specifically, this research will examine an integrated model of how internal Green Governance (GG) and external Eco-Innovative Marketing (EIM) create sustainable performance outcomes for Digital Commerce (SEP), as well as propose a new, dual-mediator model for understanding how GG and EIM are mediated by both psychological (Green Consumer Trust-GCT) and technological factors (Perceived Platform Usefulness-PPU). Finally, this research will situate its conceptual model within the evolving institutional environment of Pakistan's emerging economy and hypothesize that environmental regulatory pressure (ERP) serves as a boundary condition that can amplify the positive relationships between the three independent variables and SEP. Using data collected from 328 managerial respondents at e-commerce organizations in Pakistan and using a combination of structural equation modeling (SmartPLS-SEM) and moderation analysis (SPSS PROCESS), these results demonstrate the proposed sequential mediation and show that ERP plays a conditional role, significantly increasing the positive relationship between GG and SEP, while having no significant impact on the relationship between EIM and SEP. This research provides new theoretical insight into the relationships among stakeholders and the technology acceptance models, providing a practical roadmap for e-commerce managers and policy makers in Pakistan and other emerging digital economies to cultivate sustainable performance outcomes by implementing green initiatives that foster favorable consumer perceptions within a supportive regulatory structure.