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This study investigates the extent to which a firm’s centrality and autonomy in its supply network are associated with the intensity and complexity of its competitive actions.

Utilizing social network analysis and dynamic panel data models, this study analyzes a comprehensive panel dataset with 10,802 firm-year observations across various industries between 2011 and 2018 to test the hypotheses.

Our findings show that a firm’s level of centrality in its supply network has an inverted U-shaped relationship with both competitive intensity and competitive complexity. In addition, the turning points of these two inverted U-shaped relationships differ in that firms with a lower level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching more actions within fewer categories, while firms with a higher level of centrality tend to compete aggressively by launching fewer actions that cover a larger range of categories. Finally, we find that a firm’s structural autonomy has a positive relationship with competitive complexity.

This study bridges the gap between the supply chain management literature and strategic management literature and investigates how supply networks shape competitive aggressiveness. In particular, this research investigates how a firm’s structural position in its supply network affects its competitive actions, an important intermediate mechanism for competitive advantage that has been overlooked in the supply chain management literature.

This study aims to explore the mediating role of competitive advantage and the moderating role of competitive intensity in the relationship between innovation capability (IC) and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) performance and between strategic flexibility (SF) and SME performance.

The study adopted a survey research design. The data were collected from a conveniently selected sample of 159 SMEs in Nigeria using a self-reported questionnaire. Mediation and moderation analyses were performed using Hayes' PROCESS macro v3.

Results showed that IC and SF positively affect SME performance. Also, competitive advantage significantly mediates the relationship between IC and SME performance and between SF and SME performance. Additionally, competitive intensity positively and significantly moderates the relationship between IC and SME performance but fails to significantly moderate the relationship between SF and SME performance.

The findings have managerial implications for SME owners and managers. The findings suggest the need for SMEs to develop more IC and increase their SF. Thus, SME owners and managers should invest more in developing IC and SF. More specifically, they should invest more in research and development, the development of intellectual capital (consisting of human capital, structural capital and relational capital) and new technologies, products, services and processes. Also, they should nurture an innovation culture, encourage creative and innovative acts and allow employees to experiment with new ideas without hindrances.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to provide empirical evidence of the mediating role of competitive advantage and the moderating role of competitive intensity in the relationship between IC and SME performance and between SF and SME performance in the context of emerging economies such as Nigeria. The study validates dynamic capabilities theory by demonstrating that IC and SF are dynamic capabilities that give SMEs a competitive advantage and enhance their performance.

This article aims to provide knowledge on the antecedents and consequences of individual proactive behaviour. The proposed research model includes two unexplored antecedents (experienced meaningfulness of work and industry competitive intensity) and one consequence (individual proficiency).

Data were collected from 297 salespeople working at 105 enterprises in a range of industries. Data analysis was performed by applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The results show (1) a positive association between industry competitive intensity and salespeople’s experienced meaningfulness of work and their proactivity at work; (2) a positive relationship between salespeople’s proactive behaviour and their individual proficiency and (3) that salespeople’s proactivity mediates the relation between industry competitive intensity and the experienced meaningfulness of work and individual proficiency.

The results suggest that managers could stimulate proactive behaviour by increasing the experienced meaningfulness of work. They also indicate that it is not only individual factors that are relevant in stimulating proactive behaviour at work, as contextual factors (particularly external ones) can also influence individual decisions with regard to engaging or not in proactive behaviour. Our findings regarding the positive relationship between proactivity and proficiency would help managers to encourage salespeople’s proactive behaviour.

Although the published studies have noted that ambidextrous marketing capabilities (AMCs) could improve firm performance, they seem to ignore the differences between mature corporations and new ventures (NVs). Generally, it is impossible for NVs to simultaneously possess two types of marketing capabilities such as marketing exploitation and marketing exploration. They have to make a trade-off between the present market and the future market. This paper seeks to investigate the causal relationship between AMCs (exploitation-dominated AMCs and exploration-dominated AMCs) and entrepreneurial performance in the context of NVs. Furthermore, this paper attempts to explore the internal interaction of entrepreneurial orientation and the external interaction of competitive intensity.

This paper develops a theoretical framework according to configuration theory and investigates the causal relationship between AMCs (exploration-dominated AMCs and exploitation-dominated AMCs) and entrepreneurial performance as well as the moderating roles played by entrepreneurial orientation and competitive intensity based on the survey data collected from 257 Chinese NVs.

The results show that both the exploration-dominated AMCs and the exploitation-dominated AMCs have significant positive effects on entrepreneurial performance. However, the moderating roles played by entrepreneurial orientation and competitive intensity in the causal relationships are different and complicated. Specifically, entrepreneurial orientation negatively moderates the relationship between exploitation-dominated AMCs and entrepreneurial performance and positively moderates the relationship between exploration-dominated AMCs and entrepreneurial performance; competitive intensity positively moderates the relationship between exploitation-dominated AMCs and entrepreneurial performance and negatively moderates the relationship between exploration-dominated AMCs and entrepreneurial performance.

This paper plays a pioneering role in enriching the theoretical connotation of AMCs, improving the theoretical framework of AMCs and expanding the theoretical application of AMCs by analyzing and confirming the causal relationships between AMCs and entrepreneurial performance in the context of NVs, which is different from the previous studies. In addition, this paper also makes a valuable contribution to management practices, such as leading NVs, to match different types of AMCs with internal and external conditions for improving entrepreneurial performance.

This study aims at proposing and testing a model delineating how and when the quality of a special B2B professional service, investment relations (IR), would drive corporate intangible value.

This study employs a proprietary dataset on voting records of an annual investment relations (IR) awards event and the corresponding company-level archival data for analysis. Regression analysis is used to test hypotheses.

IR service quality not only directly enhances corporate intangible value, but also indirectly boosts it via information transparency. While competitive intensity does not moderate the relationship between IR service quality and corporate intangible value, its moderating effect on the relationship between information transparency and this value is negative.

The findings advance academic understanding of the mechanism and boundary conditions underlying the complex and dynamic relationships among IR service quality, information transparency, corporate intangible value and competitive intensity. Future research endeavors to verify the present findings in other service and/or geographic settings would help establish their external validity.

The findings advise companies to expand the traditional role of IR by taking it as a powerful communication and relationship marketing tool to improve their visibility and attract investors.

The findings suggest that superior IR service would strengthen the company’s social bonding with institutional investors and effectively signal to them its commitment to good corporate governance practices.

Matching a proprietary dataset on IR voting records with the corresponding company-level archival data over a five-year period to investigate the performance implications of IR service quality within the Hong Kong context rectifies methodological limitation and geographic confinement of prior IR research.

Owing to the growing importance of frugal innovation to the development of firms in the developing and emerging countries, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of inclusive leadership (IL) on frugal innovation through the mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing (EK). It also explores the possible moderating role of competitive intensity (CI) in the relationship between knowledge sharing (KS) and frugal innovation.

This study collected data via a questionnaire survey of a sample of 325 participants from 112 manufacturing and service firms to validate the relationship between inclusive leadership, knowledge sharing behaviors, competitive intensity and frugal innovation. Structural equation modeling and regression are adopted to estimate the effects of inclusive leadership on frugal innovation through the mediating role of knowledge sharing and moderating role of competitive intensity.

Findings reveals the significant impacts of inclusive leadership on aspects of knowledge sharing and frugal innovation. Moreover, the influences of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing on frugal innovation capability are enhanced in the intensive competitive environments.

Future research should investigate the potential moderating role of perceived organizational support in the relationship between specific aspects of knowledge sharing behaviors and frugal innovation.

The paper provides a valuable understanding and novel approach for managers and directors of firms in developing and emerging countries to improve frugal innovation capability through inclusive leadership practices and promotion of knowledge sharing in organizations.

The paper is unique in its attempt to fill theoretical gaps on the relationship between inclusive leadership and frugal innovation, and advance the insights of how inclusive leadership directly and indirectly fosters frugal innovation via mediating roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing.

Firms use design capability across the globe to compete and increase sales, e.g. Apple. However, the payoff from design know-how has been overlooked thus far. Academic research lags in this space despite the intersection of sales, technology and design in practice. This paper provides researchers and managers with implications of the interplay between design capability and technological market conditions to enhance a firm's sales.

Firms' capability design, and sales impact have been studied in this paper across different technological market conditions. Primary technological conditions of the industry under which firms operate are captured, which are technological intensity (TI), technological competitive intensity (TCI) and technological maturity (TM). Their interplay has been studied using panel data analysis, examining fixed and random effects.

Design is an important, interesting and non-imitable capacity that yields positive firm execution results. It provides an urgent differentiator and improves deal development. This study found that all four hypotheses are generally supported. The main finding is that, provided underlying technology is good, design significantly improves sales, but design alone cannot substitute for poor technology.

The results of this study link the three technological environment conditions, namely, TI, TCI and TM with sales growth. The authors find that design can and does add to superior performance, provided technological excellence exists prior. But, in the absence of good technology, design alone will hinder performance.

This paper examines the effect of firm design capability on sales growth. The paper finds a positive moderating effect of TCI and TM but a negative moderating effect of TI. The researchers believe these aspects of the design have not been studied before.

This study aims to examine whether and how corporate sustainability capability influences energy efficiency through competitive intensity and slack resource availability.

The authors applied a two-wave research design and administered a survey questionnaire to senior-level managers of 78 ISO-14001 and ISO-50001 certified manufacturing companies. The authors use a multi-method approach for data analysis. AMOS 23 software was applied for covariance-based structural equation modeling. In addition, SPSS 25 software was applied for hierarchical regression analysis to examine the causal relationships in the model.

The finding reveals that corporate sustainability capabilities, which include energy-saving opportunities, seizing energy-saving opportunities and resource reconfiguration, significantly improve firms’ energy efficiency. In addition, competitive intensity and slack resource availability positively moderated the relationship between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the link between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency in developing countries such as Pakistan. Although the influence of various corporate sustainability capabilities on sustainable performance has been widely examined in the literature, the role of corporate sustainability capability has been limitedly explored with energy efficiency. This study extends the literature by adding to the knowledge of corporate sustainability capability that enhances boundary conditions in developing countries.

This study examines the vital factors that influence digital marketing adoption among small travel agencies (brick-and-mortar) and the impact of digital marketing adoption on organizational performance modeled as a formative-formative HOC.

This empirical study builds on diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory and technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework to identify the factors of digital marketing adoption by small travel agencies. Data were collected from 226 small travel agents in India using purposive and snowball sampling. Partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyze the reflectively and formatively measured constructs.

The findings reveal significant constructs of digital marketing adoption by small travel agencies. The study also establishes the positive impact of digital marketing adoption on organizational performance. Trust partially mediates the impact of technological factors (relative advantage, security concerns) and organizational factor (knowledge) on digital marketing adoption.

The study provides methodological contribution to the literature by applying confirmatory composite analysis (CCA) approach in PLS-SEM. The study contributes to the literature by integrating DOI theory and TOE framework. The study enriches the literature on trust as it recognizes the crucial role of trust as a mediating construct.

The study provides useful implications to marketing practitioners of small travel agencies. The study shows strong predictive capacity and can be generalized throughout diverse samples.

The study adds value to the literature as it explores the digital marketing adoption among the under researched small travel agencies by integrating DOI-TOE theory. The study uniquely proposes and validates organizational performance as a formative-formative higher-order construct.

This study investigates firms' innovation behaviour under environmental change. Therefore, it examines the effect of trade disputes on corporate technological innovation and how product market competition moderates this relationship.

This research tests the hypotheses using the fixed effects model based on panel data of publicly listed enterprises in China from 2007–2020.

The empirical results validate the positive association between trade disputes and corporate research and development (R&D) intensity as well as the U-shaped relationship between trade disputes and radical innovation. Additionally, the moderating effect of product market competition is verified: a concentrated market with less competition flattens the U-shaped curve of radical innovation induced by trade disputes; as the market becomes more concentrated and less competitive, the U-shaped relationship eventually turns into an inverted U.

First, this study contributes to the corporate innovation and trade dispute literature by expanding the environmental antecedents of technological innovation and the firm-level consequences of trade disputes. Second, this study enriches the theoretical framework of the environment–innovation link through an integrated perspective of contingency theory and dynamic capabilities view. Third, instead of the traditional linear mindset which had led to contradictory results, this study explores a curvilinear effect in the environment–innovation relationship.