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Environmental degradation in emerging economies has induced stakeholder pressures on diverse firms to ensure sustainable business performance. Consequently, firms are adopting environmentally ethical cultures and reinforcing green creativity to satisfy stakeholders' environmental needs while attaining green competitive advantage, sustainable production and higher financial performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether corporate environmental ethics and green creativity serve as antecedents to higher competitiveness, sustainable production and financial performance, and also examine if green competitive advantage and sustainable production mediate the relationships between corporate environmental ethics, green creativity and financial performance in the context of an emerging economy.

This study using a survey approach examined data from 290 manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises. Data were analyzed and interpreted using SmartPLS 3.0 software, a variance-based structural equation modelling technique. This modelling technique was adopted due to its suitability for predictive research models.

The findings show that corporate environmental ethics and green creativity are critical antecedents to green competitive advantage, sustainable production and financial performance. The results connote that while corporate environmental ethics and green creativity directly and robustly influence green competitive advantage, sustainable production and financial performance, their effect on financial performance is strengthened via the indirect effects of green competitive advantage and sustainable production. Contrasting past findings, corporate environmental ethics negatively related to financial performance in this study context. The findings indicate that the integration of environmental ethics and green creativity can be a unique strategy for mitigating environmental negative risks while improving green competitive advantage, sustainable production and financial performance.

The study is among the few that draws insights from organizational ethics and the natural resource-based view (NRBV) to examine the interactions between corporate environmental ethics, green creativity, green competitive advantage, sustainable production and financial performance. Drawing insights from the findings, the study provides suggestions for managers, academicians, policymakers and governments as well as highlights implications and directions for future research.

This study aims to analyse the effects of (1) open innovation on corporate risk management, organisational strategy and competitive advantage, (2) corporate risk management on organisational strategy, and (3) organisational strategy on competitive advantage. In addition, it assesses (4) the mediating effects of corporate risk management on the relationship between open innovation and organisational strategy.

This exploratory and transversal study takes a quantitative methodological approach based on survey data from 251 hotel executive directors from Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The results confirm relationships between open innovation and corporate risk management, organisational strategy, and competitive advantage. They also confirm the importance of corporate risk management for organisational strategy and organisational strategy for achieving competitive advantage. The research demonstrates that corporate risk management has a mediating effect between open innovation and organisational strategy.

The present study proposes a model which provides better knowledge of the relationships between open innovation, corporate risk management, organisational strategy and competitive advantage. The model uses various scales to create a robust analytical measurement instrument. This research provides an in-depth analysis of the psychometric properties of the structural model’s latent variables through PLS-SEM and shows the differentiated paths of the endogenous and exogenous constructs. Finally, the importance of the role of open innovation in the process of attracting the resources necessary, that is, organisational and technological resources, to successfully operate in the hotel sector is highlighted. Thus, this research fills existing gaps in the literature.

This research can contribute to the development of new instruments and programmes to improve the operational performance of SMEs in the hospitality sector. Understanding the relationship between the constructs will allow top managers to strengthen corporate resources, technologies and dynamic capabilities, and to promote entrepreneurial policies to enhance the relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage. Ultimately, the results of this study will allow governments, national, regional and local, to create policies, programmes and incentives to help firms adopt or extend the open innovation model, thus promoting the exchange of internal and external knowledge and strengthening the dynamics of the business ecosystem.

The paper discloses the relationships between open innovation, corporate risk management, organisational strategy, and competitive advantage, by identifying the main characteristics of the constructs and revealing the linkage between them. This pioneering study analyses the mediating effect of corporate risk management between open innovation and organisational strategy and those mentioned above.

This study aims to apply signaling theory to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure can deliver effective signals to stakeholders to increase a firm’s competitive advantage in China. Whether ownership patterns or environmental sensitivity causes a significant difference in the relationship between a firm’s CSR disclosure and competitive advantage is also examined.

Data analysis is based on a regression model. Content analysis is performed to convert qualitative CSR information of Chinese firms into quantitative data, while intellectual capital (IC) is used as a proxy variable for competitive advantage.

The difference in competitive advantage impairment between environmentally sensitive industries (ESIs) and non-environmentally sensitive industries (NESIs) is significant. Further comparisons on the relationship between overall CSR disclosure and competitive advantage among state-owned enterprises, privately owned enterprises, ESIs and NESIs suggest that the relationship is negative.

The study extends research of strategic CSR to signaling theory and competitive advantage. In particular, a research using IC as a proxy for competitive advantage is rare. It also contributes to the literature on competitive advantage and strategic CSR by examining the effects of both CSR disclosure and IC.

This paper provides evidence related to stakeholders’ reaction to managers’ various CSR strategies in China. The contribution of this study is that it confirms that different CSR initiatives have different effects on the competitiveness of enterprises in China.

This paper aims to highlight dysfunctional multi-stakeholder relations and negative business outcomes, evidenced in lose/lose results, exacerbated by failure to acknowledge strategic business focus as a means to redress problematic business thinking and practice amongst key leadership teams associated with achieving balance between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility.

The reframed strategic business focus has been developed using Eastern philosophy and Western organization theory and refers to four case examples of dysfunctional business thinking and practice.

Strategic business focus results from an interdependent and complementary positive mediating relationship between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility, which is moderated by organization culture (organization core values, including shared value) and strategic human resource management (talent and mindset).

Strategic business focus as proposed has not been empirically tested but seeks to address a conceptualization that competing business and stakeholder agendas are interdependent and complementary.

Strategic business focus seeks to redress traditional win/lose and lose/lose business outcomes, by supporting win/win results, represented by shared value amongst multi-stakeholders.

Strategic business focus seeks to provide a means whereby corporate social responsibility, particularly the social contract, plays a key role in the decisions and practices of key leadership teams and the behaviour of corporate staff in host environments when seeking competitive advantage.

Eastern thinking and behaviour are usually undervalued in the western business literature, particularly in western business practice. Joint attention, however, may improve competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility agendas in support of diverse management practices, including shared value.

With increasing research focus paid to dynamic capabilities, there is an increased need to explore how dynamic capabilities can help business firms to realize corporate responsibility with stakeholders for achieving sustainable competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediation effect of strategic alliance with stakeholders on the relationship between dynamic capabilities and sustainable competitive advantage in China, an emerging market, to give suggestions on how to manage corporate responsibility to address a rapidly changing environment.

The paper tested its hypotheses on a sample in the context of China. Specifically, 700 questionnaires were sent out; 300 were collected, of which 227 were usable. The partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling approach was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.

The paper has incorporated dynamic capabilities view and corporate responsibility perspective to explain the effects of strategic alliance with different stakeholders to sustainability in emerging markets. The empirical results show that opportunity‐sensing capability, reconfiguration capability and technological flexibility capability have significant impacts on sustainable competitive advantage. Additionally, the finding indicates that the effect of opportunity‐sensing capability on sustainable competitive advantage is fully mediated by strategic alliance with stakeholders. Moreover, the result indicates that the influence of reconfiguration capability on sustainable competitive advantage is partially mediated by strategic alliance with stakeholders. The result indicates that the influence of technological flexibility capability on sustainable competitive advantage is partially mediated by strategic alliance with stakeholders too.

Combining theory and evidence from the study, an empirical verification of the links between dynamic capabilities and sustainable competitive advantage in the context of China's emerging economy was conducted. This theme has not yet been studied in the current literature in corporate responsibility. The research suggests that business firms can employ dynamic capabilities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage by means of strategic alliance to meet corporate responsibility to address hyper‐competitive environments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between CSR and competition to contribute to the CSR concept through analysis of the conditions for its implementation. While fierce global competition has negative environmental and social impacts and may lead large companies to act irresponsibly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) academic literature, especially stakeholder theory, pays little attention to competition and market pressure. It only highlights the competitive advantage a CSR strategy represents for companies.

This work draws upon the academic literature in economics and strategic management, on mainstream CSR papers and on the official disclosure and communication from companies listed on the “CAC 40” of the French stock market. In this paper, the authors use the definition of corporate responsibility which integrates companies’ environmental and social concerns into all their activities.

The following three major findings arise. First, on a theoretical level and in terms of corporate disclosure on CSR, a large gap in how the economic view and the CSR view of competition are represented was noticed. Second, the limitations of the competitive advantage obtained by CSR strategy was observed while the “demand for virtue” is weak even if the stakeholders’ “expectations” for responsible practices are strong. The author proposes a typology of CSR strategies related to competitive situations. Third, the author underlines the paradox of the CSR competitive advantage: specifically, it is gained only if not imitable; i.e. if companies prevent the mimetic practices which could spread best practices for sustainable development.

This paper highlights the limits of the CSR concept within the liberal paradigm. The authors argue that the mainstream theoretical CSR framework based on the hypothesis of the convergence between firms’ objectives and the common interest is not relevant. The framework of the neo-institutional theory is more appropriate to analyse the mimetic behaviour in competitive markets and corporate commitments in sector-based codes of conduct that define new norms of social quality.

While fierce global competition has negative environmental and social impacts and may lead large companies to act irresponsibly, corporate social responsibility (CSR) academic literature, especially stakeholder theory, pays little attention to competition and market pressure. It only highlights the competitive advantage a CSR strategy represents for companies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between CSR and competition in order to contribute to the CSR concept through analysis of the conditions for its implementation.

The paper draws upon the academic literature in economics and strategic management, on mainstream CSR papers and on the official disclosure and communication from companies listed on the “CAC 40” of the French stock market. The paper uses the definition of corporate responsibility which integrates companies' environmental and social concerns into all their activities.

The following three major findings arise. First, on a theoretical level and in terms of corporate disclosure on CSR, a large gap is noticed in how the economic view and the CSR view of competition are represented. Second, it is observed that the limits of the competitive advantage obtained by CSR strategy while the “demand for virtue” is weak even if the stakeholders' “expectations” for responsible practices are strong. In fact, a typology of CSR strategies is proposed related to competitive situations. Third, the paradox of the CSR competitive advantage is underlined: specifically, it is gained only if not imitable, i.e. if companies prevent the mimetic practices which could spread best practices for sustainable development.

The paper highlights the limits of the CSR concept within the liberal paradigm, arguing that the mainstream theoretical CSR framework based on the hypothesis of the convergence between firms' objectives and the common interest is not relevant. The framework of the neo‐institutional theory is more appropriate to analyse the mimetic behaviour in competitive markets and corporate commitments in sector‐based codes of conduct that define new norms of social quality.

Green ambidexterity innovation and green competitive advantage are of great significance to enterprises' sustainable development. From the perspective of upper echelons theory, This paper aims to investigate the role of top managers in gaining green competitive advantage and the intermediary effect of the green ambidexterity innovation between them.

This paper uses empirical data from heavily polluting enterprises in China for constructing a model to infer how enterprises achieve the green competitive advantage.

The paper shows that (a) top managers' environmental awareness and the green ambidexterity innovation are both positively related to the green competitive advantage of enterprises, while there is a difference between the exploitative green innovation and the exploratory green innovation regarding the heterogeneity; the positive effect of the exploratory green innovation on enterprises' green competitive advantage is greater than that of the exploitative green innovation; (b) the green ambidexterity innovation plays a partial intermediary effect between top managers' environmental awareness and enterprises' green competitive advantage and (c) strategic flexibility positively moderates the relation between the green ambidexterity innovation and the green competitive advantage. The study concludes that top managers' environmental awareness has a significantly positive impact on reinforcing green competitive advantages and adopting the green ambidexterity innovation for heavily polluting enterprises in China.

This paper contributes to the green innovation management literature by offering a theoretical framework for examining how top managers' environmental awareness influences enterprises' green competitive advantage.

This study aims to identify the antecedents of strategic thinking and its relationship with competitive advantage. Further, this study analyses the mediating effect of strategic thinking between its antecedents and competitive advantage.

A self-reported questionnaire with 51 questions was floated among 220 professionals from various industries in India. The response was analysed using the partial least squares-structural equation modelling methodology using SmartPLS software.

The direct effect of creativity, corporate culture and knowledge management are established with strategic thinking, as well as a competitive advantage. Also, the study finds a significant relationship between strategic thinking and competitive advantage. The study finds no mediation (direct effect) in the case of creativity, corporate culture and knowledge management. Further, no mediation (no relationship) is found in the case of vision.

Business must start adopting strategic thinking practices in their decision-making process to create a competitive advantage. Further, the influence of corporate culture, creativity and knowledge management on strategic thinking highlights their importance.

The study establishes the impact of antecedents of strategic thinking on competitive advantage. The study highlights the importance of other factors along with strategic thinking for achieving competitive advantage.