This study aims to examine how Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) and Smart Technology–AI–Robotics–Algorithms (STARA) capabilities operate as concurrent human- and digital-capability domains associated with sustainable performance in higher education institutions (HEIs). It further tests whether green innovation (GI) and green passion (GP) explain these relationships as parallel mediating mechanisms.
Using a three-wave, one-month time-lagged survey of employees from 10 HEIs in Sindh, Pakistan, this study analysed 424 matched responses. Hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Predictive performance was assessed using PLSpredict and complementary machine-learning models, with SHAP used for predictive interpretation.
Both GHRM and STARA capabilities are positively associated with sustainable performance, and GI and GP each significantly mediate these relationships. The GI-mediated pathways are stronger than the corresponding GP-mediated pathways, indicating that innovation routines constitute the dominant capability-conversion mechanism. GP operates as a complementary and potentially more context-sensitive motivational pathway. Machine-learning analysis provides complementary predictive evidence and identifies GI as the leading predictor, converging with the structural ordering observed in the PLS-SEM results.
University leaders should integrate sustainability into HR practices, deploy STARA responsibly through smart-campus monitoring and data-enabled decision support, and prioritise eco-innovation. Resource-constrained HEIs can begin with phased, low-cost initiatives such as staff training, green committees, basic sustainability dashboards and pilot eco-innovation projects.
The findings may inform institutional efforts to strengthen employee participation and employee-evaluated social sustainability outcomes relevant to internal stakeholders.
This study advances HEI sustainability research by positioning GHRM and STARA as dual human- and digital-capability antecedents – an underexamined theoretical configuration in higher education – and GI and GP as parallel mediating mechanisms. It therefore offers a more integrated, mechanism-based explanation of how sustainability capability deployment becomes performance-relevant in an emerging-economy HEI context.
