Navigating the Policy Frontier: The Role of Digitalization, Tourism, Governance, and Green Investment in Advancing Sustainable Development

Natural resource management plays a central role in supporting economic growth and ecological sustainability in developing economies. This study examines how natural resources, economic growth, digitalization, foreign direct investment (FDI), governance, and tourism shape ecological sustainability in the Emerging Seven (E‐7) countries from 2000 to 2024. Ecological sustainability is measured using the Load Capacity Factor (LCF), a threshold‐based indicator that captures the balance between ecological demand and biocapacity. The analysis distinguishes three structural periods: the pre‐crisis phase (2000–2007), the global financial crisis and recovery years (2008–2014), and the digitally accelerated post‐pandemic era (2015–2024). Using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), the results show that FDI consistently improves sustainability, with its strongest effects appearing in the most recent period. Digitalization also strengthens LCF, especially at higher quantiles, indicating its growing role in supporting resource‐efficient development. Tourism exerts persistent negative pressure on sustainability, with greater harm observed in countries already facing ecological stress. Governance and economic growth display modest but mixed effects across the distribution. To address simultaneity and endogeneity, a three‐stage least squares (3SLS) model is applied, and robustness checks reinforce the core findings, underscoring the importance of digital and investment‐driven pathways for ecological improvement. By extending 3SLS insights across quantiles, the study offers a structured framework for understanding the multifaceted drivers of sustainability in emerging economies. The findings support global development priorities under SDG 9, SDG 12, and SDG 13, and highlight the need for context‐specific policy strategies rather than uniform or one‐size‐fits‐all approaches.