This study aims to examine how generative artificial intelligence (GAI) adoption is associated with international green supply chain performance and international competitive advantage in cross-border e-commerce enterprises. Drawing on dynamic capabilities theory and the Technology–Organization–Environment–Human framework, the authors examine absorptive capacity and transformative capacity as intermediate capability mechanisms and artificial intelligence turbulence as a contingency.
The authors use an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. The quantitative strand combines survey data from 334 Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises with partial least squares structural equation modeling, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and importance-performance map analysis. The subsequent qualitative strand draws on semi-structured interviews with ten managers and executives directly involved in GAI implementation, which are integrated with the quantitative evidence at the interpretation stage.
GAI adoption is positively associated with absorptive and transformative capacities, which are in turn positively associated with international green supply chain performance and international competitive advantage. International green supply chain performance shows the largest estimated association with international competitive advantage. Artificial intelligence turbulence positively moderates the relationships between GAI adoption and both capacities, and the configurational analysis identifies five equifinal configurations sufficient for high international competitive advantage.
Managers should develop absorptive and transformative capacities alongside GAI implementation, integrate sustainability requirements into artificial intelligence-enabled supply chain decisions and pursue internally coherent implementation routes rather than a single ideal template.
This study integrates variance-based, configurational and qualitative evidence to explain the capability pathways through which GAI adoption is associated with environmental and competitive outcomes in cross-border supply chain settings rather than in dyadic buyer–supplier relationships.
