Navigating Paradox for Sustainable Futures: Organizational Capabilities and Integration Mechanisms in Sustainability Transformation

This study investigates the critical capabilities and integration mechanisms that enable organizations to achieve substantive sustainability transformations. Using a mixed-methods approach combining survey data (n=234), in-depth interviews (n=42), and comparative case studies (n=6), the research identifies how organizations effectively navigate sustainability paradoxes while developing integration practices that embed sustainability throughout organizational systems. Statistical analysis reveals strong relationships between paradox navigation capabilities and transformation outcomes (β=0.31, p<0.01), with integration practices emerging as the strongest predictor of sustainability success (β=0.42, p<0.01). Qualitative findings illuminate four essential integration mechanisms—governance integration, strategic integration, operational integration, and performance integration—and their temporal development. The research contributes to sustainability science by advancing theory on paradoxical tensions in transformation processes, demonstrating how organizations can transcend the gap between sustainability rhetoric and substantive action through both structural integration and power-conscious approaches. By identifying contextual contingencies across sectors and organizational types, the study challenges universal prescriptions for sustainability transformation, offering instead a nuanced framework for creating organizational conditions conducive to context-specific transformation toward more sustainable futures.