Green Intellectual Capital, Sustainability Control Systems, and Environmental Performance: Bridging Natural Resource Orchestration and Levers of Control Perspectives

Understanding how organizations translate sustainability-oriented intangible assets into tangible environmental outcomes remains an important challenge in sustainability accounting and management control research. Drawing on the natural resource orchestration perspective, this study examines how sustainability control systems, grounded in Simons’ levers of control framework, help translate green intellectual capital (GIC) components into improved environmental performance. Using survey data from 175 listed Indian firms and applying partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), the results show that GIC is positively associated with environmental performance, and the sustainability control systems variable mediates this relationship. The study contributes to the sustainability management control literature by integrating natural resource orchestration theory with the levers of control framework. The findings offer firm-level implications by showing that merely possessing green knowledge assets does not necessarily lead to improved environmental performance. Instead, firms need to orchestrate these assets through sustainability control systems by effectively structuring, bundling, and leveraging them to translate GIC into stronger environmental outcomes. The findings also provide practical insights for managers and regulators seeking to strengthen environmental performance through the strategic integration of GIC and sustainability control systems.