ESG Practices and Sustainable Supply Chain Capability in a Compliance-Intensive Industry: Evidence from the Mexican Aerospace Sector

Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) increasingly integrates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria to address sustainability risks and performance across multi-tier supply networks. However, it remains unclear whether ESG practices directly enhance supply chain outcomes or primarily operate through the development of higher-order management capabilities. This study examines how ESG practices influence supply chain resilience, operational performance, and sustainability performance in the Mexican aerospace industry, emphasizing the mediating role of Sustainable Supply Chain Management Capability (SSCM Capability). Data were collected through a structured survey administered at the Mexico Aerospace Fair (FAMEX) in April 2025, yielding 217 valid responses from Tier 1–3 aerospace firms. The research adopts a hypothesis-driven design integrating Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to combine sufficiency- and necessity-based perspectives. The findings show that ESG practices primarily create value by enabling SSCM Capability, which is central to improving all performance dimensions. While ESG practices directly contribute to operational and sustainability performance, resilience improvements depend mainly on capability development. NCA results further indicate that ESG practices are foundational to SSCM Capability and high performance, whereas SSCM Capability constitutes a necessary condition for resilience. These findings underscore the critical role of capability building in translating ESG commitments into robust supply chain performance within compliance-intensive aerospace ecosystems in emerging economies.