Knowledge, Awareness and Sustainability in Somali Firms: What a New Study Reveals

A digest of Sheikh Ali & Nor (2026), International Review of Management and Marketing

Somali businesses operate amid deforestation, recurrent drought and weak environmental regulation, and many sustainability efforts start with awareness campaigns. But does knowing that environmental problems exist change how firms perform — or is deeper knowledge, backed by leadership and workplace culture, what matters? This study surveys 300 employees of Somali firms to test how environmental knowledge and environmental awareness relate to sustainability performance, and whether organisational behaviour — leadership, culture and policy support — carries part of that relationship. It will interest managers, sustainability practitioners, policymakers and management researchers.

The survey covered 300 employees. Knowledge has a total effect on sustainability of β = .30, while awareness has an effect of β = .02 that is not significant. About 23.4% of the knowledge effect runs through organisational behaviour.

Article at a Glance

The article is "Exploring the Role of Environmental Knowledge, Awareness, and Organizational Behavior in Driving Sustainability Performance and Decision-Making: Evidence from Somali Business Organizations," by Ali Yassin Sheikh Ali (SIMAD University) and Abukar Hussein Nor (Skilfull Academy). It was published in the International Review of Management and Marketing, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 325–340 (EconJournals; open access, CC BY 4.0), in the 2026 issue (received 18 April 2025; accepted 17 October 2025). Its research area is organisational behaviour and corporate sustainability, and its study context is employees of business organisations in Somalia. The method is a cross-sectional survey analysed with exploratory factor analysis, correlation, mediation analysis and ANOVA (Jamovi 2.6.2, SPSS 27). The DOI is https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.19916.

The Research Problem

The literature the authors review suggests that awareness makes people sensitive to environmental issues, while knowledge gives them the means to act — and that leadership and culture help turn knowledge into results. Evidence on these links from Somali organisations, which face environmental stress with limited regulation and institutional capacity, is scarce.

Research Objective

The study examines how environmental knowledge, awareness and organisational behaviour relate to sustainability performance in Somali organisations. Its five hypotheses propose that knowledge (H1) and awareness (H2) relate positively to sustainability practice, that organisational behaviour improves sustainability performance (H3) and mediates the effects of knowledge and awareness (H4), and that age, experience and qualifications predict all four measures (H5).

How the Study Was Conducted

A quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 300 employees selected by purposive sampling from several Somali firms. Environmental knowledge, environmental awareness, organisational behaviour and sustainability performance were each measured with five questionnaire items and summed into scores.

The analysis followed six steps. In step 01, Sample, 67% of respondents were male, 63.7% were aged 20–29 and 80% held a bachelor's or master's degree. In step 02, Factor analysis, principal axis factoring confirmed four factors, and one sustainability item was dropped. In step 03, Model fit, the four-factor structure had RMSEA .06 and TLI .91. In step 04, Reliability, Cronbach's alpha was .75–.88 and McDonald's omega was .75–.88. In step 05, Mediation, direct and indirect effects via organisational behaviour were estimated. In step 06, Group tests, ANOVA was run by age, work experience and qualification.

Key Findings

The standardised coefficients come from Table 5 of the article. The path from knowledge to organisational behaviour has β = 0.26 (z = 4.79, p < .001). The path from awareness to organisational behaviour has β = 0.04 (z = 0.70), which is not significant. The path from organisational behaviour to sustainability has β = 0.26 (z = 4.70, p < .001). The direct path from knowledge to sustainability has β = 0.23 (z = 4.10, p < .001). The indirect path from knowledge through organisational behaviour to sustainability has β = 0.07 (z = 3.35, p < .001), which is 23.4% of the total. The total effect of awareness on sustainability is β = 0.02 (z = 0.37), not significant. The total effect of knowledge on sustainability is β = 0.30 (p < .001).

1. Knowledge, not awareness, is linked to sustainability performance. With both in the model, knowledge has a significant total effect (β = 0.30) while awareness has none (β = 0.02), supporting H1 but not H2.

2. Organisational behaviour carries about a quarter of knowledge's effect. The indirect path accounts for 23.4% of the total, with the direct effect remaining significant — partial mediation (H4 partly supported).

3. Older, more experienced and better-educated employees score higher. Knowledge rises from 20.0 among 20–29-year-olds to 22.9 among those 50+ (η² = .13); effects for other measures are small to moderate (η² = .03–.06).

Reading note: The conclusion opens by saying awareness "significantly influences" sustainability performance, which contradicts the results. The "60.8% mediation" reported for awareness comes from non-significant effects and has no meaningful interpretation. And although the title refers to decision-making, no decision-making measure is included.

What the Study Contributes

The contribution is primarily empirical: survey evidence from Somali organisations separating environmental knowledge from awareness and testing organisational behaviour as a channel. The authors recommend moving beyond awareness campaigns toward structured sustainability training, leadership commitment, sustainability indicators in performance reviews, industry–academic collaboration, and national sustainability standards.

Important Limitations

Identified by the authors: The cross-sectional design limits causal inference. The 300 employees from specific enterprises may not represent Somali sectors or regions. Self-reported data are open to social-desirability and common-method bias. Organisational behaviour is treated as one construct despite distinct sub-dimensions.

Skilful cautions arising from the study design: The sample is young and highly educated, and the firms and sectors are not described. Only 12 and 11 respondents are aged 40–49 and 50+, so age comparisons rest on small groups. Sustainability performance is employees' perception, not an organisational metric. Finally, the mediation model does not control for age, experience or education, which are related to all four measures.

Why This Research Matters

For Somali employers, the findings suggest that sustainability training and supportive leadership may matter more than awareness messaging alone — a practical point for firms planning environmental programmes.

Skilful Research Insight

Editorial commentary — not a finding of the study. Three lessons stand out. First, report a "percentage mediated" only when the underlying effects are significant; otherwise the figure invites misreading. Second, when demographics relate to every variable, include them as controls in the main model. Third, the knowledge-versus-awareness distinction is worth testing with organisation-level outcomes — energy and water use, waste, environmental certifications — and with responses from several staff per firm, which would show whether the pattern holds beyond individual perceptions.

Read the Original Research

The original article is "Exploring the Role of Environmental Knowledge, Awareness, and Organizational Behavior in Driving Sustainability Performance and Decision-Making: Evidence from Somali Business Organizations," published in the International Review of Management and Marketing, 16(1), 325–340 (2026), by Ali Yassin Sheikh Ali and Abukar Hussein Nor. Its DOI is https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.19916, and the publisher/journal page is EconJournals, www.econjournals.com (open access, CC BY 4.0). Skilful summarises; all findings belong to the original authors.

SEO Information

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