GenAI–Sustainability Nexus: Mediating Roles of Knowledge Management and Social Responsibility in HEIs

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly reshaping knowledge processes in higher education, yet its contribution to Sustainable Performance (SP) remains unclear. This study investigates how GenAI use affects the sustainable performance of higher education institutions (HEIs), where SP is conceptualised as a multidimensional outcome encompassing financial, environmental and social performance. Drawing on the Resource-Based View, the Knowledge-Based View and Stakeholder Theory, the study proposes that GenAI creates value indirectly through two organisational capabilities: Knowledge Management Capability (KMC) and Institutional Social Responsibility (ISR). Survey data were collected from 387 instructors in Kazakhstani colleges who actively use GenAI tools in their work, and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling with higher-order constructs. The results show that GenAI does not directly enhance SP, but is positively associated with KMC, which in turn has a strong positive effect on SP. ISR is also positively related to SP, yet GenAI has no significant direct effect on ISR. Mediation analysis reveals that KMC mediates the GenAI–SP relationship, and that GenAI contributes to SP through a significant serial pathway GenAI → KMC → ISR → SP, while ISR alone does not mediate the GenAI–SP link. The findings extend existing theory by demonstrating that GenAI acquires strategic value only when embedded in robust knowledge-management and responsibility structures. Practically, the study highlights the need for HEIs in transition economies such as Kazakhstan to move from tool-centred GenAI adoption towards capability-driven strategies that strengthen KMC and formalise ISR in order to achieve financial, environmental and social gains