From digital skilling to sustainable performance: How climate entrepreneurship and attitudes toward artificial intelligence shape the future of SME technological transitions

Digital technologies are reshaping how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies respond to environmental pressure, yet two questions remain open. Research linking digital skilling to sustainability has largely tested direct effects without tracing the behavioral pathway such an effect would have to travel, and attitudes toward artificial intelligence have rarely been examined as a condition governing whether green entrepreneurial activity converts into performance. This study addresses both. Integrating the Theory of Planned Behavior, Diffusion of Innovations Theory, and Contingency Theory into a single explanatory sequence, it models climate entrepreneurship (CE), green entrepreneurial behavior (GEB), and green entrepreneurial intention (GEI) as the mechanisms linking digital entrepreneurial education and training (DEET) to sustainable environmental performance (SEP) and sustainable organizational performance (SOP), with commitment to the environment (CTE) and attitude toward artificial intelligence (ATAI) as boundary conditions. Survey data from 648 Pakistani SMEs are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, with a random forest robustness check confirming that the modelled relationships are linear and compensatory. DEET directly predicts organizational performance but has no significant direct effect on environmental performance; its environmental influence is transmitted entirely through the three behavioral mechanisms. Environmental commitment and favorable attitudes toward artificial intelligence each strengthen the conversion of green entrepreneurship into sustainability outcomes, though the interaction effects are modest in magnitude. The findings suggest that digital skilling initiatives are unlikely to yield environmental returns unless paired with entrepreneurial agency and technological openness, with implications for the sequencing of digital and AI-readiness policy in resource-constrained economies.