Sustainability has gained increased attention in the global volatile setting and has pressed businesses to modify their existing activities to achieve their sustainability goals (Chen et al., 2020). Current studies on organizational sustainability and sustainable use of resources focused on large firms more than small and medium enterprises. SMEs are interrelated organizations in a global systemic environment that advocate sustainable development (SD) resources, such as social, natural, and financial (Abbas and Sagsan, 2019), and collectively generate a substantial percentage of the environmental effects.

In the past few decades, business experts and researchers ignored the environment as they presumed that their produced commodities did not affect the environment (Rossiter and Smith, 2018). However, industrial firms significantly contribute to ecological problems such as water, and air contamination, and natural resource erosion. Centobelli et al. (2020) found that industrial establishments endanger the subsistence of life on Earth by causing pollution and wastage.

Stakeholders’ pressure to enforce eco-friendly activities has prompted firms globally to get involved in the green process (GP) and product development. To meet their stakeholders’ expectations, the companies have started relying on their intangible reserves to resolve ecological sustainability concerns.