Omar Zuhier Abdul Karim Al Shar¹, Qingmei Tan¹, Muhammad Haroon Rasheed^2*, Muhammad Waqar Akhtar³ and Nordiana Mohd Nordin⁴

¹College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China
²Malik Firoz Khan Noon Business School, University of Sargodha, Pakistan
³Sorbonne Business School, Université Paris-I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
⁴School of Information Science, College of Computing, Informatics and Mathematics, UiTM Campus Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Asian Pacific region accounts for one third of the global populace and economic growth, while being on the forefront of climate crisis. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), national innovation capacity (GII), E-government (EGov) and MSMEs' GDP contribution across Asian Pacific economies. Using panel data from 2007 to 2023, the study identifies a strong linear relationship between the composite SDG index and the MSME share in GDP. It is also observed that there is a strong connection between GII and MSME contributions. Mediation analysis demonstrates that GII partially mediates the link between SDG advances and the MSME share of GDP, while quality of EGov services is found to significantly moderate the relationship. Similarly, goal-level analysis revealed that SDGs 1, 5, 10, 14, 15, and 16 remain the primary factors advancing MSME economic contributions, whereas SDGs 3, 9, and 12 are significant contributors to driving innovation in the economy. These results are essential for considering sustainability and innovation as mutually constructive concepts and for developing relevant policies to promote inclusive growth among.

Keywords: Sustainability, Economic Growth, Technology, E-Government, MSME