Towards sustainability: Digital capability, sustainable business model innovation, and corporate environmental responsibility of high-performing enterprises in an emerging market

High-performing enterprises committing to Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) is a prevalent phenomenon in emerging markets. However, the theoretical underpinnings of this phenomenon remain underdeveloped. Drawing on the behavior theory of the firm and a panel data of Chinese listed companies covering the period 2010–2020, we build a moderated mediation framework to explain the CER commitment of high-performing enterprises, and we further examine the mediating role of sustainable business model innovation and the moderating role of digital capability. We find that (1) enterprises' performance aspiration surplus leads to an increasing commitment to CER, (2) high-performing enterprises can foster CER through executing sustainable business model innovation, and (3) the direct and indirect (via sustainable business model innovation) effects of performance aspiration surplus on CER are favorably moderated by digital capability. This paper contributes to the literature of CER and provides strategic insights for high-performing enterprises to undertake sustainable business model innovation.