Achieving the ambitious economic, social, and environmental goals of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires strategic digital governance improvements that promote long-term and equitable participation in emerging technologies. However, research lacks clear confirmation regarding how governments’ varied policy investments in spheres, like infrastructure expansion, skills programming, and cybersecurity, specifically contribute to holistic sustainable development progress monitored across international benchmarks. Addressing persistent uncertainties, this study statistically modeled if national expenditures directed toward information and communications technology (ICT) access, digital literacy initiatives, and online privacy protections predict higher performances meeting SDGs longitudinally. Analyzing recent country-level data across 27 European nations, structural equation modeling uncovered positive relationships between all three complementary digital governance priority areas and national SDG Index achievement over time. Beyond theoretically validating the instrumental role of availability, capabilities, and security advancements for balanced digitization, findings offer policymakers vital empirical guidance to amplify social returns on ICT investments. The results also demonstrate practical tools to track implementation impacts amidst unrelenting technological shifts. Ultimately, equitably mainstreaming technologies’ vast problem-solving potential necessitates evidence-based digital governance carefully expanding equitable participation. This work aims to equip leaders to purposefully craft enabling, empowering ICT policy ecosystems advancing urgent development aims.

This study investigates the relationships between entrepreneurial leadership skills (ELSs), ethical entrepreneurial leadership (EEL), corporate sustainable development (CSD), and competitive advantage (CA) in SMEs. Drawing on resource-based view theory, we examine whether entrepreneurial capabilities and ethical practices jointly contribute to sustainability and competitive positioning. Data from 312 SME leaders across manufacturing, services, technology, and trading sectors were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results reveal that ELSs foster EEL (β = 0.684, p < 0.001) and enhance CSD (β = 0.453, p < 0.001). EEL significantly affects CSD (β = 0.527, p < 0.001) and partially mediates the relationship between entrepreneurial skills and sustainability (indirect effect = 0.361). CSD strongly enhances CA (β = 0.612, p < 0.001). The findings demonstrate that integrating entrepreneurial capabilities with ethical leadership creates foundations for sustainable development and CA in resource-constrained environments. This research extends entrepreneurial leadership theory by showing complementarity between entrepreneurial and ethical orientations, advances sustainability theory by revealing ethical leadership’s mediating role, and enriches RBV by demonstrating how intangible leadership capabilities generate CA when traditional resources are scarce. Practical implications include developing integrated leadership programs and sustainability frameworks for emerging economy SMEs.

While the operational benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are well-documented, the mechanisms through which firms leverage AI for strategic exploration and radical innovation remain under-theorized. This study addresses the “black box” of AI value creation by integrating the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework with the Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV). We propose that AI adoption is not a direct antecedent to performance but a multi-stage process wherein technological, organizational, and environmental factors enable the development of sensing capability, which in turn fosters a novel capability we term “AI-Enabled Exploration.” Analyzing survey data from 245 senior executives in Saudi Arabia, a high-growth economy undergoing state-led digital transformation, we employed Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the model. The results confirm a serial mediation chain: organizational readiness and technology compatibility drive sensing capability, which subsequently powers AI-enabled exploration to enhance innovation performance. Contrary to expectations, government support was not a significant predictor of sensing capability, suggesting that in resource-rich environments, external incentives are necessary but insufficient for capability building. Furthermore, competitive pressure was found to positively moderate the relationship between organizational readiness and exploration, acting as a critical catalyst that converts latent resources into active experimentation. These findings offer a theoretical roadmap for firms attempting to transition from AI-driven efficiency to AI-driven ambidexterity.

The healthcare sector contributes approximately 4.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet research on the organizational determinants of sustainable behaviors among healthcare workers remains limited. This study examines how green transformational leadership and ethical climate influence sustainable clinical behaviors among registered nurses, with green psychological climate as a mediator and perceived organizational hypocrisy as a moderator. Data were collected from 760 nurses across 11 public and private hospitals in Jordan using a cross-sectional survey design. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. The results revealed that both green transformational leadership (β = 0.215, p < 0.001) and ethical climate (β = 0.161, p < 0.001) positively predicted sustainable clinical behaviors. Green psychological climate partially mediated both relationships. Perceived organizational hypocrisy significantly weakened the positive effects of green transformational leadership (β = −0.153, p < 0.001) and ethical climate (β = −0.065, p < 0.01) on sustainable behaviors. The model explained 35.7% of the variance in sustainable clinical behaviors. These findings highlight that fostering sustainability in healthcare requires not only supportive leadership and ethical organizational environments but also authenticity and consistency between stated values and actual practices. The study extends green transformational leadership theory to healthcare settings, integrates ethical climate research with environmental sustainability, and introduces perceived organizational hypocrisy as a critical boundary condition. Practical implications for healthcare administrators seeking to reduce their environmental footprint are discussed.

Cybersecurity has become one of the top priorities in Saudi Arabia, playing a key role in achieving Vision 2030 and advancing the kingdom’s position in digital transformation. This study investigates how cybersecurity knowledge, attitudes, and awareness influence user behaviours in health applications within Saudi Arabia. An online cross-sectional survey was distributed between March and April 2025 among Saudi Arabian residents. The collected data (n = 629) were analyzed using Smart PLS Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to assess the relationships among the study constructs. The majority of the participants (61.4%) were between the age of 18 and 24, and 87.6% reported using health applications such as Sehhaty or Labayh to manage their health information. Results demonstrated that all three constructs significantly predicted cybersecurity behaviours: knowledge showed the strongest influence (β = 0.372), followed by attitude (β = 0.343) and awareness (β = 0.199), with all paths being statistically significant (p < 0.05). The model explained substantial variance in cybersecurity behaviours. Knowledge, attitude, and awareness significantly predict cybersecurity practices in healthcare application contexts. Findings highlight the critical need for targeted educational interventions focusing on cybersecurity knowledge enhancement and awareness programmes to promote safer digital health behaviours and strengthen patient data protection in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare system.

Telework has expanded rapidly, and understanding the behaviors employees enact under it has become correspondingly important. This study develops an integrative conceptual framework specifying the multidimensional nature of telework behavior. A systematic literature review following PRISMA identified 114 review articles, which were analyzed using constructivist grounded theory. Six behavioral dimensions were identified, covering performance, communication, environmental, task, policy, and well-being conduct. Antecedents were grouped into individual factors, job characteristics, organizational norms, technological factors, and work environment factors. Outcomes were grouped into job satisfaction, productivity, turnover, health and well-being, work–life balance, and social isolation. Three contextual moderators were identified, namely telework modality, telework preference, and cultural and national context. Fourteen propositions link these categories and are advanced as testable claims rather than established findings, since they are derived from published review evidence and have not been empirically tested. The framework proposes telework behavior as the construct through which the conditions of remote work are translated into employee and organizational outcomes, and it specifies a content domain from which measures of the construct can be developed. It also indicates where organizations can direct policy, training, and intervention.