AI-Enabled Sustainable Digital Marketing Systems: A Stimulus–Organism–Response Framework of Customer Engagement and Institutional Sustainability Capabilities

Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed digital marketing in so many ways because it enables intelligent, personalized, and data-driven customer experiences. Nonetheless, current research remains fragmented, mostly because it emphasizes the direct effect of AI on marketing performance while overlooking the instruments through which AI influences sustainable digital marketing systems (SDMSs) and the institutional conditions necessary for its proper usage. To fill in the gaps, this study develops and empirically tests an integrated Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework that conceptualizes AI-enabled sustainable digital marketing systems as the technological stimulus that influences sustainable digital marketing performance through customer satisfaction, customer engagement, and sustainable customer outcomes. The model incorporates sustainable customer outcomes and institutional sustainability capability as contextual constraints; it includes firm readiness and the regulatory environment as institutional sustainability capabilities that enable ethical and accountable AI integration. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional research design and survey data from 720 AI users, the model is analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that AI-enabled sustainable digital marketing systems can tremendously improve sustainable digital marketing performance both directly and indirectly through customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. Strategic integration, institutional sustainability capabilities, and supportive regulatory environments further strengthen these relationships. The study strengthens the S–O–R framework by including technological, psychological, and institutional mechanisms into a unified model of sustainable digital marketing. It also accelerates responsible AI research by establishing how customer-centered AI deployment and institutional sustainability capabilities both promote long-term customer value creation and sustainable organizational performance. This provides practical guidance for developing ethical and sustainable AI-enabled marketing strategies.