From Social Values to Green Capabilities: Perceived Linkages Toward Organisational Sustainability

Organisations increasingly combine social innovation and environmentally orientated technologies in response to sustainability and stakeholder pressures. However, empirical evidence remains limited on how organisational actors perceive and cognitively associate social innovation, green technologies, and practices related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in emerging European economies. This study addresses this gap by examining whether employees and managers perceive these dimensions as interconnected and whether green technologies represent a statistically significant indirect association between social innovation and SDG-related organisational practices. Using a cross-sectional online survey of 265 employees and managers from Romanian companies in production, services, IT, and commerce, we estimated an exploratory structural model through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal strong positive associations between perceived social innovation and SDG-related organisational practices, as well as between perceived social innovation and green technologies. Green technologies are also positively associated with SDG-related practices and exhibit a statistically significant indirect association within the observed pattern of associations. Consistent with perception-based research design, these findings suggest that respondents cognitively group social and technological initiatives as complementary components of a broader sustainability orientation, rather than indicating statistical or process-based mechanisms. The study contributes to organisational sustainability research by integrating social innovation and green technologies within a single organisational-level framework and by providing context-specific evidence from Romania, an under-represented central and Eastern European context.