Search results

The global business environment has brought about great innovation according to the advent of the fourth industrial revolution era. Most of the enterprises are focusing on adapting to the era of the fourth industrial revolution and trying to find appropriate strategies. Competitiveness among enterprises is changing fiercely. Such environments are threatening to the sustainability of enterprises. In this regard, it is a key issue that how enterprises can be sustainable and gain competitive advantage. Based on this background, this study emphasized the importance of environmental involvement. Enterprise can improve its image through environmental involvement. Since enterprise image is a variable that directly impacts enterprise growth and performance, it promotes the sustainability of the enterprise. Therefore, this study aims to explore the improvement factors of environmental immersion and verified its influence.

This study focused on creating shared value as a factor to improve environmental involvement. It is divided into three components, which are economic values, social values and cooperative values, respectively. The role of these three factors in enhancing environmental involvement was clearly identified and the process of enhancing enterprise image was verified.

The mediating effect of environmental involvement on the relationship between creative shared values (economic values, social values and cooperative values) and enterprise image was demonstrated.

This study emphasized the importance of environmental immersion in the era of the fourth industrial revolution and provided a way to improve enterprise image, which is directly related to the sustainability of the enterprise.

The aim of this study is to determine key factors and processes for multinational companies (MNCs) to develop an effective stakeholder engagement and sustainable development (SD) framework.

A qualitative multiple-case approach was used. A triangulation method was adopted (interviews, archival documents and observations) to collect data on three global firms (MNCs). Nine senior executives were interviewed for this study (three from each firm). An initial literature review was conducted to explore possible practices and factors (the deductive approach) to SD. Interview data were analysed using Nvivo to obtain appropriate nodes and themes for the framework. A comparison of findings from interview data, archival data, factors, themes and cross cases comparison were used to develop the final conceptual framework (the inductive approach).

The results suggested that stakeholder engagement is a key mediator between “stakeholder network” (internal and external factors) and outcomes (corporate social responsibility, social capital, shared value and SD). Key internal factors such as human capital/talent, technology, culture, leadership and processes such as collaboration, knowledge sharing and co-creation of value with stakeholders were identified. These internal factors and processes must be integrated and aligned with external factors such as social, political, cultural, environment and NGOs to achieve effective stakeholder engagement.

This study has captured the insight of how MNCs developed their SD strategies. Accessing internal data from MNCs is always a challenge and in-depth qualitative approach is warranted here to obtain underlying strategies, processes and meaning to SD in MNCs.

The implications of multiple organizational identities for branding research have been scarcely considered. This paper aims to explore what sources of identity internal stakeholders use to construct organizational identities and corporate identities, and identify how diversity emerges in the perceived identities across various stakeholders.

The empirical study includes 59 in-depth interviews with internal stakeholders in a business-to-business service company.

Employees may perceive identity diversity as a strategic benefit for the company, and employees may not identify with a uniform corporate identity. The corporate identity could become more identifiable for employees through managerial recognition of different dimensions of identity diversity, such as multiple professional and locational identities.

The study bridges insights between organizational identity and corporate identity and problematizes identity coherence and consistency as strategic principles for corporate branding by proposing an alternative approach guided by identity diversity. Additionally, the study discusses identity diversity-based approaches to internal branding and co-creation in branding.

The purpose of this paper is to question the appropriateness of approaching business ethics communication from within a corporate communication or intercultural management framework as the normative stances of these two frameworks are seen to differ with regard to how global companies should communicate with a culturally diverse staff.

Survey results regarding staff evaluations of various company‐issued arguments used to promote ethical behavior in a global corporate setting are examined. The respondents are staff from the Denmark, Sweden, Brazil, and the USA affiliates of the global health care company, Novo Nordisk.

Survey results reveal that although there are some important differences between country affiliates, there is also an impressive degree of agreement that corporate identity, values, and reputation are important sources of motivation for ethical behavior.

The findings provide practical guidance for the development of persuasive business ethics programs in global, values‐based companies.

The paper provides support for the corporate communication stance that shared corporate identity, values, and reputation do indeed motivate staff to behave ethically. It also demonstrates the international applicability of this stance.

Agriculture and cultivation firms are facing severe competition in the saturated market. Due to the characteristics of heavy assets, low investment return, long cycle and high price fluctuation, agri-food firms require innovations for capital support. The purpose of this paper is to provide valuable insights on how firms in the food/agricultural industry approach innovations and reinforce their advantages through functional and structural innovations by adopting supply chain finance (SCF).

This research adopts a single-case study methodology to investigate the innovations and mechanisms taking place at H Corp Agriculture Group (H Corp hereafter), a Chinese egg company.

The findings of this paper indicate that SCF could have a great impact on supply chain management through functional and structural innovations throughout the supply chain and solve the capital constraint problems in the agricultural development process, promoting the implementation of the integration strategy as well as innovation in the agricultural industry chain. The research also shows that supply chain structural and functional innovations could promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) and creating shared value (CSV).

The research contributes to the application of SCF mechanisms and the realization of CSV and CSR jointly – both in the literature and in firms’ practices. It also contributes to the extension of structural and functional innovations and vertical integration of the supply chain. However, generalizability and universality are insufficient for a single case study in the specified industry. Data collection and quantitative analysis could be extended for further research.

The study addresses the need for comprehensive research on SCF and its applications. It proposes effective and efficient strategies for agri-food firms applying SCF to overcome industry capital constraints and develop competitiveness. It also provides a balanced and positive circulation between economic value and social value, realizing CSR and CSV.

This case uniquely challenges students by introducing the history of how LIXIL transformed its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program to create shared value within the global sanitation sector by launching the SATO business unit as a social enterprise. SATO is a “self-sustaining social business that establishes a local Make, Sell, Use cycle in the community – creating jobs and allowing local manufacturers and stakeholders to continue the business independently” (LIXIL, 2019). From 2012 to 2021, NGOs helped the company design and market the SATO toilet pan and other products that form the SATO business unit. The SATO business unit must balance its social mission of improved sanitation with the need to gain a profit and become a sustainable business – the ongoing challenge of social entrepreneurship.

After completing this case study, students will be able to meet the following objectives: understand the difference in corporate strategy between CSR and ventures that create shared value; understand the sometimes-competing goals of social enterprises and analyze how they can balance both economic and social objectives; understand that developing and emerging markets are different from each other; explain how corporations can decide which markets to pursue, and how they can meet the needs of the diverse BOP markets; understand how the pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals can create economic opportunities for corporations; and (optional: suggested for post-graduates) identify activities and challenges of MNC market entry in developing country contexts. Analyze institutional voids in developing country contexts and explore how partnerships can help to address these voids.

This case is most appropriate for the study of international business, corporate social responsibility, and social entrepreneurship students at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. The case may be used for undergraduate students to illustrate corporate social entrepreneurship, creating shared value, NGO partnerships, and marketing to the base of the pyramid (BOP) consumers. An optional section on BOP market entry is presented for early- and late-stage post-graduate students, illustrating the concepts of the liability of foreignness and institutional voids.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

As perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the long-term sustainable development strategies for many companies, this paper investigates the interrelationships between sustainable values (SVs), perceived CSR and customer behaviour in the restaurant industry.

To gather data needed to meet the study aims, we conducted an online survey of restaurant patrons in China, and used partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to analyse the proposed models and test the hypotheses.

The obtained findings confirm that the three studied SV dimensions (equality, respect for nature and shared responsibility) have positive effects on perceived CSR, which in turn significantly affects word of mouth (WOM). Moreover, perceived CSR mediates the relationship between the three SVs and WOM but has no impact on the relationship between SVs and revisit intention.

The results of this study have practical implications for managers in the restaurant industry. Restaurant managers can prioritize their CSR efforts based on the relative importance of SV dimensions, which is useful in generating positive WOM.

Even though the importance of CSR is widely recognised, it is insufficiently studied from the perspective of restaurant customers. This research not only addresses this gap, but also expands the current understanding of SVs and their impact on CSR.

Based on empirical work from two major UK organizations. British Airways and BT (formerly British Telecom), both of whom have, after privatization, engaged in large‐scale culture change programmes. Both organizations have made substantial job cuts and (at the time of writing in May 1991) both organizations have announced the need for further redundancies. Considers the objectives of culture change programmes and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved in the organizations concerned, i.e. what values are cultivated and to what extent are they shared by organizational members? Considers the conflicting messages offered by the redundancy programmes and attempts to assess the implications for individuals and for self‐perception of job losses in the context of culture change.

Cluster management organizations (CMOs) have emerged over the past few decades as intermediaries that support the competitiveness of place-based clusters of economic activity. Despite their economic origins, policymakers are now starting to experiment with a broader use for cluster policies that seeks to leverage CMOs to tackle societal challenges in approaches aligned with the concept of creating shared value (CSV). However, there remains a void in conceptual understanding around the specific roles that CMOs might play in overcoming the barriers faced by their members for CSV, which this paper aims to address. Bridging this gap presents an opportunity for cluster practitioners and policymakers in a context in which environmental and social sustainability are at the top of policy agendas.

Based on analysis of literature around collaborative approaches to CSV for mitigating transaction costs, the authors define the contours of a new conceptual framework for the roles that CMOs can play in fostering collective CSV. The authors illustrate how the different components of the framework are reflected in emerging cluster practice in the context of a new wave of European cluster-based projects tackling CSV elements.

The resulting framework reconciles the concepts of clusters and CSV by explicitly positioning CMOs as intermediaries for facilitating the CSV strategies of their members. CMOs embrace emergent strategy making that targets (tangible and intangible) collective CSV capabilities and addresses collective CSV challenges. Collective CSV can provide a theoretical anchor guiding future cluster policies to fully leverage the transformative potential of CMOs. This conceptual framework opens a promising empirical research agenda, particularly around evaluating the plurality of impacts of CMOs.

By stressing the social impact of CMOs alongside their well-understood economic impacts, and by enabling a categorization of functions that can support the monitoring of CMO activities toward collective CSV strategies, the framework provides a novel basis for inspiring further empirical research into the evidencing of these roles.

The purpose of this article is to examine the influence of corporate culture on the practice of corporate philanthropy in a global environment.

The paper uses content analysis of corporate texts and media; interviews with global philanthropy practitioners.

The paper finds that: corporate philanthropy is a reflector of corporate values; global corporate philanthropists have a history of commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities; global companies practice international philanthropy; program delivery differs as a reflection of corporate history, values, mission, and business drivers; global corporations utilize CSR to gain and maintain their “license to operate”; and corporate cultural learning is pursued as an explicit activity; cross‐cultural learning is generally perceived as an implicit outcome. CSR shares values, opportunity for integrated cultural learning.

This research is not generalizable. Its findings could be explored by surveying a larger purposive sample.

The practical implications of this research are the sharing of corporate values and the inclusion of cultural learning through the integration of CSR activities, including philanthropy.

The study found corporate opportunities for cultural learning valuable to the development of the global corporation as global corporate citizen, a prerequisite to the effective practice of philanthropy and for doing business globally.