Business Intelligence and Environmental Sustainability: Evidence from Jordan on the Strategic Role of Green and Integrated Supply Practices

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Business Intelligence and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Green Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Integration, and the Moderating Effect of Blockchain Integration in Jordanian Manufacturing Firms.

 

The originality of the paper is poor.

The study does not provide a convincing rationale for why the integration of BI with GSCM, SCI, and BCI is theoretically or practically novel. The argument comes across as more descriptive than analytical, lacking a critical comparison with existing integrative models or frameworks. This makes it difficult to understand what sets the study apart or how it meaningfully advances current knowledge.

The most important flaw lies in the research gap, which is mentioned only in generic terms (e.g., "underexplored", "fragmented understanding"). I encourage the authors to critically evaluate the existing literature to establish a clearer and more specific gap. Doing so will help articulate how filling this gap can advance theory, influence practice, or inform policymaking in emerging markets. I also recommend that the authors focus more on the Jordanian sector by supporting their arguments with figures, statistics, or real-world examples from industry.
This section needs to be rewritten in a more narrative, storytelling style to effectively establish the research gap.

 

The entire literature review is weak and lacks adherence to the principles of academic writing, particularly in the development of hypotheses. For example, the authors fail to discuss BI and its dimensions, BI in SCM, and its relationship to environmental performance, especially within the context of SCM in Jordan. I strongly encourage the authors to revisit and restructure this section.

Similarly, the integration of theories and their linkage with the research variables is overly generic and lacks theoretical grounding. Along the same lines, the hypotheses development is missing; it is surprising to suddenly find nine hypotheses without any foundational discussion.

Moreover, the section on contributions to the literature follows the literature review in an awkward and disjointed manner, it seems misplaced.

Methods
There is no need to introduce each subsection separately; please remove these introductory sentences.
This section also needs to be rewritten in a formal academic style, rather than as bullet points or fragmented paragraphs.

Once these sections are strengthened, the discussion and implications will naturally be enhanced.
The authors should follow the standard structure of an academic paper, starting with the Introduction, followed by the Literature Review, Methods, Results, Discussion and Implications, and finally, Future Research Directions.

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered, and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision towards this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or modifications do not meet your standard, please kindly point it out, and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

These suggestions were very helpful for us to improve all the sections. As you can see from the submitted file, all the parts from the abstract to the last sections have been improved based on your constructive comments.

Thanks a lot for this kind opportunity. 

 

Best Regards

Matina Ghasemi

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Reference Number: sustainability-3728783

 

Review of “Business Intelligence and Environmental Performance: The Mediating Role of Green Supply Chain Management and Supply Chain Integration, Moderation Effect of Blockchain Integration in Jordanian Manufacturing Firms”

 

 

There are some comments for authors to improve the quality of manuscript as follows:

• The title should be refined, which should not include all Moderation or Mediating effects.
• The abstract should be rewritten to highlight novelty of paper.
• The hypotheses section should be a individual section, which can not include in literature review. Meanwhile, from H1 to H10, which hypotheses are basic hypotheses? What are their basic theoretical mechanism? Which ones can reflect moderation or mediating effects. How about there theoretical basis? I guess they have their different theoretical basis and mechanism. Please explain them individually.
• What is practical issues in this study? Why did author develop this theoretical  framework? How did this theoretical  framework deal with practical application?
• Data sources section: It is not clear what each core variable means and what the corresponding indicators in the database are. Meanwhile, how did authors get these data (data sources)? How about their reliability and scientificity.
• The stability androbustness of various results are deficit, which should be added in various hypotheses results (from H1 to H10) .
• The quality of Figures (Figures 1 and 2) are not clear enough. Meanwhile, the figure associated with whole theoretical framework should be added.
• What are the reasons for not supported in H1, H9 and H10? Please make an in-depth analysis with the actual situation.
• How to identify partialmediation effects, does it mean that mediation effect is not significant? Please explain them in a clear manner.
• The explanations of each figure are not clear enough. Please pay attention to the matchup between them.
• “Conclusion”section is expected to include not only general description of the proposed method but also a brief summary of disadvantages of this method and some future study works. It would help the readers better understand the limitation and improvement of the proposed method. 

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered, and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision towards this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or modifications do not meet your standard, please kindly point it out, and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

These suggestions were very helpful for us to improve all the sections. As you can see from the submitted file, all the parts from the abstract to the last sections have been improved based on your constructive comments.

Thanks a lot for this kind opportunity. 

 

Best Regards

Matina Ghasemi

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This paper examines how business intelligence (BI) influences environmental performance (EP) through green supply chain management (GSCM) and supply chain integration (SCI), and examines the moderating effect of blockchain integration (BCI). It has a certain degree of innovation, but the following problems still exist.

In terms of theoretical framework construction, although the paper integrates the theories of RBV, NRBV and DCV, why does it not further combine institutional theory to explore the impact of local policies and regulations in Jordan on the implementation of BI and environmental performance? For instance, could the absence of a theoretical perspective on how Jordan's environmental governance reforms shape enterprises’ willingness to adopt GSCM and SCI lead to an insufficient explanation of the role of institutional contexts?

In terms of research methods, the sample selection focuses on enterprises in Jordan’ s manufacturing industry that have adopted BI and GSCM, and mainly on large enterprises, but Jordan’ s manufacturing industry is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises. Could there be selective bias in this?

In terms of measurement tools, does BCI’ s adoption of only three items fully capture the multi-dimensional application of blockchain technology in the supply chain? Furthermore, were potential endogeneity issues examined in the PLS-SEM analysis? For instance, can the reliability of causal inference be enhanced by adding variables?

In the research findings, why is the direct effect of BI on EP not significant, while the indirect effects through GSCM and SCI are significant? Does this result imply that the BI applications of Jordanian enterprises are still at the data processing level and have not yet been transformed into strategic capabilities for environmental management?

Furthermore, in response to the issue that the moderating effect of BCI is not significant, the authors suggest that it be reconstructed as a “higher-order construct” or a “mediating variable” in the future. Is there any theoretical support for this transformation?

In terms of research limitations, the cross-sectional design fails to capture the dynamic evolution among variables. Could future research consider longitudinally tracking the temporal relationship between BI implementation and environmental performance improvement? At the same time, in the future, could we consider incorporating emerging technologies such as AI into models to examine how their synergy with BI affects environmental performance, thereby expanding the technical dimensions of research?

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer,

First of all, we would like to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. During these days, all of your comments have been carefully considered, and these comments are of great help to us in improving the paper. We sincerely hope the responses and modifications of the manuscript will change your decision towards this paper. Of course, if any of our responses or modifications do not meet your standard, please kindly point it out, and we will continue our work to revise the manuscript. Thank you very much for your great help!

These suggestions were very helpful for us to improve all the sections. As you can see from the submitted file, all the parts from the abstract to the last sections have been improved based on your constructive comments.

Thanks a lot for this kind opportunity. 

 

Best Regards

Matina Ghasemi

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript has shown substantial improvement compared to the previous version. However, the introduction needs further refinement to clearly identify the research gap. While the contribution discussed in the introduction is valuable, it is somewhat lengthy.

Abbreviations should be presented consistently within the text, with full terminology provided at first mention only.

There are some errors, such as in the sentence: 'Extensive empirical research confirms the link between GSCM and EP. Zhu et al. (2008) show that green practices reduce waste and emissions.'

Section 3.3, 'Contribution to Literature,' should be revised, as the contribution has already been addressed in the introduction.

References supporting the threshold values in the measurement model should be properly cited.

The authors are unable to clearly distinguish between the conclusion and the implications. These sections should be revisited. The implications section should offer actionable recommendations for academia, industry, and policymakers by addressing the 'so what?' question. Practical implications should be expanded to correspond to each result.

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer, 

We want to thank you for your helpful comments on our paper. We have carefully revised the manuscript in line with all comments and suggestions, which we believe have enhanced its clarity and overall quality. A detailed point-by-point response to your comments is included with this submission. These comments and suggestions were very helpful for us as you can see from the submitted file.

We hope the revised version meets your approval and look forward to your consideration.

Thank you very much for your great help and this valuable opportunity.

 

 

The manuscript has shown substantial improvement compared to the previous version. However, the introduction needs further refinement to clearly identify the research gap. While the contribution discussed in the introduction is valuable, it is somewhat lengthy.

 

Prior studies have predominantly focused on BI’s impact on financial and operational outcomes, with limited attention to its environmental implications, particularly in emerging market supply chains (Bhatiasevi & Naglis, 2020; Huang et al., 2022). Some research suggests that BI may support sustainability through resource efficiency (Zanke & Sontakke, 2024), regulatory compliance (Dubey et al., 2019), and environmental reporting (Zhu & Yang, 2021). Yet, these contributions tend to remain descriptive, failing to empirically test the mechanisms through which BI translates into measurable environmental gains. This gap is particularly salient in developing countries like Jordan, where the industrial sector faces rising environmental scrutiny amidst a national digital transformation agenda. Despite policy-level initiatives under Jordan Vision and the Green Growth Plan, empirical investigations remain scarce regarding how BI enables environmental outcomes when embedded in supply chain practices.

 

Moreover, although Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) and Supply Chain Integration (SCI) are often theorized as operational pathways to sustainability, their mediating role between BI and EP remains largely untested. Likewise, while Blockchain Integration (BCI) is promoted as a transparency-enhancing tool, its moderating role in enabling BI’s sustainability outcomes, especially in institutionally constrained and digitally developing contexts, remains theoretically underexplored (Saberi et al., 2019; Benzidia et al., 2021). Although institutional factors undoubtedly influence sustainability adoption, this study prioritizes intra-organizational capabilities such as BI, GSCM, and SCI rather than regulatory compliance dynamics. This choice aligns with the study's aim to examine capability-based mechanisms within firm-level digital transitions. The manufacturing sector stands as one of the largest and most critical pillars of Jordan's economy, accounting for roughly 30% of the nation's GDP. Unfortunately, exports from Jordanian industrial companies have been declining at a rate of 0.5% annually since 2010. A significant factor behind this troubling trend is the array of challenges and issues that these companies face in relation to their environmental performance. Addressing these concerns is essential for revitalizing the sector and boosting international competitiveness (Rawashdeh et al., 2024).

The study also aligns its findings with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 12 (Sustainable Production and Consumption), it is critically important because it addresses a significant gap in understanding how BI can directly and indirectly influence EP in manufacturing firms, particularly in emerging economies like Jordan. As global sustainability challenges intensify, there is an urgent need for businesses to adopt practices that reduce environmental degradation and promote resource efficiency.

 

 

Abbreviations should be presented consistently within the text, with full terminology provided at first mention only.

All Abbreviations were done as recommended, especially those related to BI, EP, GSCM, SCI, BCI, RBV, NRBV, DCV.

 

 

There are some errors, such as in the sentence: 'Extensive empirical research confirms the link between GSCM and EP. Zhu et al. (2008) show that green practices reduce waste and emissions.'

The text was revised and edited as recommended.

 

 

Section 3.3, 'Contribution to Literature,' should be revised, as the contribution has already been addressed in the introduction.

This section was deleted and merged with the Introduction section (refined)

 

 

References supporting the threshold values in the measurement model should be properly cited.

The references were modified properly as requested (section 5.1)

 

 

The authors are unable to clearly distinguish between the conclusion and the implications. These sections should be revisited. The implications section should offer actionable recommendations for academia, industry, and policymakers by addressing the 'so what?' question. Practical implications should be expanded to correspond to each result.

This section was revised and edited as recommended (Section 7.1 and 7.2) as follows:

 

Conclusion

This study examined how BI affects EP in Jordanian manufacturing firms through the mediating roles of GSCM and SCI, and the moderating role of BCI. Using PLS-SEM, the findings reveal that BI does not exert a statistically significant direct influence on EP, but its effects are fully mediated by GSCM and partially by SCI. This outcome underscores the importance of embedding BI within structured green practices and coordinated supply chains to generate measurable sustainability outcomes.

Contrary to initial hypotheses, BCI did not moderate any examined pathways, suggesting that blockchain’s influence is highly dependent on digital maturity, ecosystem readiness, and regulatory support conditions not yet fully realized in the Jordanian industrial context. This aligns with existing literature cautioning against overgeneralizing blockchain's utility across diverse institutional settings.

Theoretically, the study contributes to RBV, NRBV, and DCV by demonstrating that BI functions as an enabling resource only when integrated with operational GSCM and relational SCI capabilities. BI alone does not translate into environmental gains unless leveraged through firm-specific dynamic capabilities and inter-organizational networks. Additionally, institutional factors such as environmental regulation, national digital strategy, and enforcement mechanisms in Jordan should be considered as critical boundary conditions for future models.

Implications

Practically, the findings advise industrial firms to align BI investments with sustainability-oriented operations, particularly by developing cross-functional green processes and supplier collaboration mechanisms. Technology adoption, in isolation, is insufficient strategic deployment must accompany cultural change and structural readiness. Policymakers are encouraged to enhance digital infrastructure, clarify blockchain policy, and promote training initiatives that bridge the gap between analytics capabilities and environmental policy compliance. These efforts support broader national and international sustainability objectives, particularly SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production.

Additionally, this study presents a conceptually grounded and empirically validated framework for aligning digital transformation with sustainable supply chain practices. By demonstrating that BI’s value emerges not from standalone analytics but from its integration into green and collaborative processes, it offers theoretical, managerial, and policy insights for firms and governments striving to navigate the green-digital nexus in emerging economies. The findings challenge deterministic views of digital technologies and advocate instead for an ecosystem-aware, capability-driven approach to achieving EP through digital innovation. Finally, firms should prioritize green process redesign and collaborative integration mechanisms that convert BI insights into actionable practices.

 

 

​

 

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This version is OK.

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer, 

Thanks a lot for your valuable time and kind support. 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I believe that the authors adequately addressed my comments. The models, analyses, and results are interesting. I therefore recommend this paper to be publicated.

Author Response

Dear Respected Reviewer, 

Thanks a lot for your valuable time and kind support.