IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v103y2025ics1059056025005350.html

Exploring the mitigating role of sustainable innovation in supply chain disruption risks under the digital economy

Author

Listed:
  • Bai, Haoyu
  • Chen, Yuntan
  • Zhang, Ziyu

Abstract

In light of the growing prominence of supply chain disruption risks, it has become increasingly important to examine how the digital economy can mitigate operational risks faced by enterprises. Using data from non-financial A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2008 to 2023, this study constructs a firm-level indicator of supply chain disruption risk by deriving from the MD&A text and empirically investigates the impact of urban digital economy development on such risks with fixed effect model. Furthermore, it explores the mediating role of sustainable innovation and the heterogeneous effects across different types of enterprises. The findings reveal that: (1) the digital economy significantly reduces firms’ supply chain disruption risk, with the results remaining robust under various tests; (2) both exploratory and exploitative sustainable innovations serve as significant mediators in the relationship between the digital economy and supply chain disruption risk; (3) the risk-mitigating effects of the digital economy vary depending on ownership structure, financial performance, and industry type, with more pronounced effects observed in non-state-owned, profitable, and manufacturing firms. These findings offer policy-relevant insights into how regional digital infrastructure and innovation policy can enhance supply chain resilience amid global uncertainties.

Suggested Citation

  • Bai, Haoyu & Chen, Yuntan & Zhang, Ziyu, 2025. "Exploring the mitigating role of sustainable innovation in supply chain disruption risks under the digital economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025005350
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2025.104372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056025005350
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.iref.2025.104372?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xin, Yongrong & Song, Hang & Shen, Zhiyang & Wang, Jiangquan, 2023. "Measurement of the integration level between the digital economy and industry and its impact on energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Nakavachara, Voraprapa, 2021. "Reshaping Thailand's labor market: The intertwined forces of technology advancements and shifting supply chains," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Ling, Shixian & Gao, Hongfu & Yuan, Di, 2024. "Catalytic role of the digital economy in fostering corporate green technology innovation: a mechanism for sustainability transformation in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 278-292.
    4. Archana A Mukherjee & Rajesh Kumar Singh & Ruchi Mishra & Surajit Bag, 2022. "Application of blockchain technology for sustainability development in agricultural supply chain: justification framework," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 46-61, June.
    5. Fu, Xin & Qiang, Yongjie & Liu, Xuxu & Jiang, Ying & Cui, Zhiwei & Zhang, Deyu & Wang, Jianwei, 2022. "Will multi-industry supply chains' resilience under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic be different? A perspective from China's highway freight transport," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 165-178.
    6. Raoul Minetti & Pierluigi Murro & Zeno Rotondi & Susan Chun Zhu, 2019. "Financial Constraints, Firms’ Supply Chains, and Internationalization," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 327-375.
    7. Chen, Yongmin, 2020. "Improving market performance in the digital economy," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    8. Justin J. P. Jansen & Frans A. J. Van Den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2006. "Exploratory Innovation, Exploitative Innovation, and Performance: Effects of Organizational Antecedents and Environmental Moderators," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(11), pages 1661-1674, November.
    9. Matthew Elliott & Benjamin Golub & Matthew V. Leduc, 2022. "Supply Network Formation and Fragility," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(8), pages 2701-2747, August.
    10. Vahid Nooraie, S. & Parast, Mahour Mellat, 2016. "Mitigating supply chain disruptions through the assessment of trade-offs among risks, costs and investments in capabilities," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 171(P1), pages 8-21.
    11. Paul Heidhues & Botond K?szegi & Takeshi Murooka, 2016. "Exploitative Innovation," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, February.
    12. Harper, David A. & Endres, Anthony M., 2018. "From Quaker Oats to Virgin Brides: Brand capital as a complex adaptive system," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 1071-1096, December.
    13. Peter Dauvergne, 2022. "Is artificial intelligence greening global supply chains? Exposing the political economy of environmental costs," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 696-718, May.
    14. Wei‐Jr Juo & Chao‐Hung Wang, 2022. "Does green innovation mediate the relationship between green relational view and competitive advantage?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2456-2468, July.
    15. Getao Hu & Jun Yang & Xi Cheng & Nan Li & Jun Li, 2025. "Climate-Induced Disasters, Risk Resilience and Firm Performance," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(10), pages 3074-3095, August.
    16. Yuzuka Kashiwagi & Yasuyuki Todo & Petr Matous, 2021. "Propagation of economic shocks through global supply chains—Evidence from Hurricane Sandy," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1186-1220, November.
    17. Howard Qi & Jian Shi & Yan Alice Xie, 2019. "Default correlation: rating, industry ripple effect, and business cycle," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(30), pages 3256-3273, June.
    18. David J. Teece, 2007. "Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(13), pages 1319-1350, December.
    19. Qiao, Yi & Li, Xiaorong & Hu, Juncheng, 2025. "From digital to innovative: How does digital transformation affect corporate innovation?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    20. Liu, Ethan Xin & Dang, Lily, 2025. "Digital transformation and debt financing cost: A threefold risk perspective," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    21. Cao, Yueming & Bai, Yunli & Zhang, Linxiu, 2024. "Do the types of agricultural socialized services and their diverse suppliers matter to farmland renting in rural China?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    22. Liu, Jianing & Long, Fenjie & Chen, Lei & Li, Lei & Zheng, Longfei & Mi, Zhifu, 2025. "Exploratory or exploitative green innovation? The role of different green fiscal policies in motivating innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    23. Li, Shuqi & Zhu, Yuxuan & Xu, Nuo, 2025. "Computing resources and trade credit financing: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    24. Jinlin Li & Litai Chen & Ying Chen & Jiawen He, 2022. "Digital economy, technological innovation, and green economic efficiency—Empirical evidence from 277 cities in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 616-629, April.
    25. Emily Jones, 2023. "Digital disruption: artificial intelligence and international trade policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 39(1), pages 70-84.
    26. Yu, Huan & Yao, Li, 2024. "The impact of digital trade regulation on the manufacturing position in the GVC," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    27. Zhang, Shushan & Gu, Cheng & Zhang, Peiwen, 2025. "Alleviating dependence: High-speed rail opening and firms' supply chain dependence," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 116-129.
    28. Bassett, Hannah R. & Lau, Jacqueline & Giordano, Christopher & Suri, Sharon K. & Advani, Sahir & Sharan, Sonia, 2021. "Preliminary lessons from COVID-19 disruptions of small-scale fishery supply chains," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    29. Zaheer Khan & Yong Kyu Lew & Pervaiz Akhtar, 2016. "The influence of industrial policy and national systems of innovation on emerging economy suppliers’ learning capability," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 512-530, August.
    30. Shujian Ma & Jilong Cai & Gang Wang & Xiangxiang Ge & Ying Teng & Hua Jiang, 2024. "Research on Decision Analysis with CVaR for Supply Chain Finance Based on Blockchain Technology," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-25, January.
    31. Xie, Xuemei & Wang, Hongwei, 2021. "How to bridge the gap between innovation niches and exploratory and exploitative innovations in open innovation ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 299-311.
    32. Minjie Li & Mengjun Meng & Yihui Chen, 2024. "The impact of the digital economy on green innovation: the moderating role of fiscal decentralization," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-33, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Jinfei, 2026. "Supply chain digitalization and disruption risk: The roles of resilience and financing constraints," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    2. Xinju He & Lanxin Liu & Hu Fu & Chuanjiang Yu & Sudong Hua, 2025. "Place-based policies develop digital enterprises: evidence from digital parks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(6), pages 3547-3588, December.
    3. Zhu, Quan & Luo, Jianghong, 2026. "Supply chain disruption risk and corporate market position: An analysis from the perspective of internationalization," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Siying Wang & Haiqing Hu & Xianzhu Wang & Yusheng Wang, 2025. "Dynamic Evolution of Ambidextrous Digital Innovation Capabilities and the Development of Environmental, Social and Governance Performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(5), pages 5833-5857, September.
    2. Jingyun Li & Zhenran Li & Feng Dong & Haitao Wu, 2025. "How to efficiently enhance sustainable development through the digital economy? Evidence from 60 countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 1-29, February.
    3. Jiang, Zihao & Shi, Jiarong, 2023. "Government intervention and technological innovation in the wind power industry in China: The role of industrial environmental turbulence," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 344(C).
    4. Zhang-Zhang, YingYing & Rohlfer, Sylvia & Varma, Arup, 2022. "Strategic people management in contemporary highly dynamic VUCA contexts: A knowledge worker perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 587-598.
    5. Feng ZHANG, 2025. "Ambidexterity and Firm Performance: A Literature Review," Management and Economics Review, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(2), pages 391-406, June.
    6. Songsong Cheng & Qunpeng Fan & Yang Song, 2023. "Performance Gap and Innovation Ambidexterity: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Lin, Hsing-Er & Hsu, I-Chieh & Hsu, Audrey Wenhsin & Chung, Hsi-Mei, 2020. "Creating competitive advantages: Interactions between ambidextrous diversification strategy and contextual factors from a dynamic capability perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Guimei Yang & Feng Liu & Putthiwat Singhdong, 2024. "Exploring the Impacts of Green Supply Chain Integration and Ambidextrous Green Innovation on the Financial Performance of China’s Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-23, July.
    9. Zhao, Fan & Li, Ruirui & Wu, Ziyin & Ru, Xue, 2025. "Can the integration of digital and real economies stimulate residents' consumption?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Zhang, Jing A. & O'Kane, Conor & Bai, Tao, 2024. "How do university-firm interactions affect firm innovation speed? The case of Chinese science-intensive SMEs," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(7).
    11. Ritu Singh & Parikshit Charan & Manojit Chattopadhyay, 2019. "Dynamic capabilities and responsiveness: moderating effect of organization structures and environmental dynamism," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 46(4), pages 301-319, December.
    12. Juanru Wang & Yajiong Xue & Jin Yang, 2020. "Boundary‐spanning search and firms' green innovation: The moderating role of resource orchestration capability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 361-374, February.
    13. Silvia Rita Sedita & Ivan De Noni & Luciano Pilotti, 2014. "How do related variety and differentiated knowledge bases influence the resilience of local production systems?," "Marco Fanno" Working Papers 0180, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche "Marco Fanno".
    14. Matthijs J. Janssen & Koen Frenken & Elena M. Tur & Alexander S. Alexiev, 2022. "The perils of pleasing: Innovation-stifling effects of customized service provision," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 1231-1264, September.
    15. Tong Tong & Azmawani Abd Rahman, 2022. "Effect of Innovation Orientation of High-Tech SMEs “Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises in China” on Innovation Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    16. Cao, Lanlan & Navare, Jyoti & Jin, Zhongqi, 2018. "Business model innovation: How the international retailers rebuild their core business logic in a new host country," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 543-562.
    17. Ouyang, Huimin & Park, Chansoo & Oh, Chang Hoon, 2024. "The impact of reverse knowledge transfers on exploitative and exploratory innovations in MNCs: The role of knowledge distance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    18. Wenna Wang & Zhen Yang & Jin Chen & Jun He, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and enterprise ambidextrous innovation: Exploration or exploitation?," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1234-1258, August.
    19. Jichang Zhang & Jing Long & Alexandra Martina Eugenie von Schaewen, 2021. "How Does Digital Transformation Improve Organizational Resilience?—Findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    20. Jing An & Suicheng Li & Jianqi Qiao & Qingyun Yang, 2026. "The impact of smart supply chain management on supply chain transparency: a dynamic resource-based view," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-24, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:103:y:2025:i:c:s1059056025005350. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.