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Today’s small enterprises are forced to rethink their business-as-usual management and shift toward corporate sustainability. The empirical paper responds to a crucial quest for many modern leaders and entrepreneurs, specifically small business owners in emerging economies. This paper aims to answer what they can do to increase long-term financial performance and enhance stakeholder satisfaction, thereby contributing to long-term business sustainability.

Using a convenience sampling, data were collected from a sample of 280 business leaders and entrepreneurs of small enterprises across industries in an emerging economy of Thailand. This study used a sustainable leadership research framework. Factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were used for data analysis.

Seven valid and reliable leadership factors were uncovered as new underlying leadership constructs to examine business sustainability in small entrepreneurial enterprises in Thailand. Results from multiple regressions revealed two significantly positive factors or drivers (i.e. trusting, innovative team orientation and strong, shared vision) for enhanced two sustainability performance outcomes (i.e. financial performance and stakeholder satisfaction). The findings thus contribute to advance our limited knowledge about the contextualised constructs and possible theoretical development of the developing research realm.

Successful small entrepreneurial organisations in Thailand and other emerging economies that wish to improve their business sustainability are suggested to adopt the essential leadership and management practices (i.e. trusting, innovative team and strong, shared vision). Future studies may examine data from a larger sample size and other countries to expand our limited understanding in different contexts.

The resulting practical insights can be used to guide business leaders, entrepreneurs, practitioners and policymakers towards making strategic priorities and investments for improved business competitiveness, resilience and sustainability in small entrepreneurial enterprises. Overall, this study may be a starting point for further investigation on developing entrepreneurial growth and business sustainability in small sustainable enterprises across emerging economies.

The paper responds to calls for more contextualised research studies in the evolving multidisciplinary field of entrepreneurial leadership and business sustainability, particularly in an emerging economy of Thailand. It also unveils the essential strategic leadership factors that positively drive business sustainability in small entrepreneurial firms. And, it empirically examines the effects of diverse strategic leadership factors and multiple sustainability performance outcomes in a single study. It further proposes an emergent leadership-performance model for entrepreneurial business sustainability in the context-specific study. Above all, it advances the currently limited empirical knowledge in the emerging research front towards more sustainable futures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) on the financial and operating performance of acquiring firms from emerging economies in the long-term; the acquiring firms have been segregated into frequent (multiple) and first-time (single) acquirers based on their prior cross-border experience. The intent is to identify if overseas activities bring over and above advantage to multiple acquirers in terms of enhanced financial synergies and reduced costs, motivating them to engage in sequential international transactions.

The paper analyses the impact of CBAs announced and completed during 2004–2013 by Indian companies listed on the NIFTY 500 index. The post-acquisition financial and operating performance of Indian cross-border acquirers has been compared with their pre-acquisition performance. The average performance over three-years immediately preceding the acquisition year constitutes the benchmark for the post-acquisition performance. The post-acquisition period includes a year of integration followed by three successive post-integration years. Therefore, in operational terms, the research period extends from 2001–2017. The long-term performance of frequent (multiple) and first-time (single) Indian acquirers has been investigated comprehensively using a set of 16 financial ratios. The performance has been assessed using the secondary data collected from financial statements of acquiring companies; the financial statements and the list of CBAs by Indian companies have been obtained from Thomson Reuter’s EIKON database.

The financial and operating performance of frequent as well as first-time acquirers have depicted a similarly deteriorating trend during the post-acquisition period. These findings indicate that the international expansion of Indian companies is not guided by synergy creation potential and may be pushed by the overconfidence or over-optimism and agency conflicts of managers. This, perhaps, indicates that firms are being imprudent in investing free cash flows available with them.

The study is the first of its kind. No study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has analysed the performance of acquiring firms by segregating them into frequent and first-time acquirers using accounting measures of performance. More so, an extensive analysis of the long-term financial and operating performance of acquiring companies is rare to come across in the extant literature.

The purpose of this paper is to statistically assess the relationship between corporate characteristics, environmental contribution and financial performance. To this end, the authors compare the financial performance of all US corporations making up the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, being the most proactive companies in providing services and goods, while maintaining ethical responsibility and environmental sustainability.

Various performance measures are compared to the mean performance of the related industry, sector and market portfolio. We employ an analysis for several time horizons of the financial measures.

Analysis by the authors suggests that firms that are proactive in supporting social responsibility and environmental sustainability (SRES corporations) are characterized by significantly higher profit measures than the industry and the sector, though not higher than the entire market. They have lower short-term liquidity measures than those of the industry and related sector, and surprisingly, their long-term leverage is significantly higher. Strong SRES corporations are characterized by significantly higher managerial efficiency ratios than the respective industry and sector. Interestingly, however, the per-worker operating efficiency ratios are significantly lower than for all of the benchmarks.

The revealed preference of corporations can be extracted from several horizon dependent financial measures. For instance, we could infer the corporate degree of SRES from their long-term capital structure, i.e. their long-term leverages and short-term liquidity measures.

These results illustrate the strong relation between social and environmental sustainability, and long-term business plans in respect to the corporate capital structure.

One of the main contemporary challenges in organisations is finding ways of measuring their intellectual capital (IC), and its effects on competitiveness and financial sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of IC on the long-term financial performance of Brazilian companies.

Considering that previous studies have not been able to explain the role of IC in financial sustainability (measured by long-term corporate performance), this paper attempts to fill this gap by means of a quantitative, descriptive and applied study. Based on the theories of knowledge management, accounting and finance, the authors have undertaken a study of the companies listed on the BM&FBovespa, based on secondary data, using a multi-industrial cut, over the period 2005 to 2014, using descriptive and multivariate statistics.

The analysis supports three major conclusions: IC influences positively the profitability and corporate return of these companies; the more intangible-intensive public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa demonstrate higher financial sustainability than the others, in terms of profitability and corporate return, either individually, globally or by industry; and that IC helps increase financial performance, systematically, over time.

Contributions of the following types were sought: theoretical (increasing an understanding of the effects of IC on business performance from a long-term perspective – an understanding that is still only incipient in the management literature); and empirical (increasing an understanding of the role of IC in the differentiation of companies, in organisational profitability and on the return on applications of resources).

The original proposal for the measurement of financial performance presented in this paper proved to be valid and consistent, complementing what is known about the subject under examination, contributing to the improvement of management theory and practice and providing a competitive benchmarking process. This can make it possible for company analysts or managers to evaluate their company in relation to its industry or its market as a whole by means of such indicators, individually or combined with other quantitative or qualitative metrics.

The results of this research reduce a gap in the management and accounting literature, as they shed light on the performance measurement process. In addition to the range and depth of the statistical tests carried out, attention should be drawn to the originality of the proposal presented in this paper. This facilitates the measurement of the effects of IC on financial performance through the selection and application of specific indicators for the assessment of the contribution of IC to organisational results.

This study aims to evaluate changes to the financial performance of organizations in the 1–4 quarters following a data breach event. The study introduces two new variables, “intangible assets” and “extraordinary losses” to the discussion on the impact of data breaches on an organization’s financial performance. Intangible assets allow us to gauge the data breach’s impact on the organization’s brand reputation and intellectual capital reserves. Extraordinary losses allow us to gauge if organizations considered data breaches truly detrimental to their operations that they rose to the level of “extraordinary” and not an event that could be incorporated into its usual operating expenses.

This study uses a matched sample comparison analysis of 47 organizations to understand the short-term and long-term impacts of data breach events on an organization’s financial performance.

Data breach events have some negative impacts on the organization’s profitability more than likely leading to a depletion of the organization’s assets. However, organizations do not perform better or worse in the short-term or long-term due to a data breach event; the organizations can be considered financially sustainable in the 1–4 quarters following a data breach disclosure.

This study takes two approaches to theory development. The first approach extends the current literature on data breach events as negative, value declining events to the organization’s performance, which is referred to as the “traditional view.” The second view posits that a data breach event may be a catalyst for enhanced long-term organization performance; this is referred to as the organizational sustainability and resiliency view.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the long-term financial effects of open innovation in the manufacturing industry.

Drawing upon an open innovation literature, this study examined 671 open innovation announcements made by firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations during 2003-2012. By employing the event study, the long-term financial performances of the firms that announced open innovation were measured using six dependent performance variables (ROA, ROS, Tobin’s Q, Cost ratio, Sales growth, Asset turnover).

The results indicate that open innovation in the manufacturing industry may lead to long-term improvements in firm profitability, triggering a positive reaction by stockholders. Open innovation also decreased production costs and increased sales volume over the long run. In all, open innovation was found to be beneficial to the firm in terms of profitability, production process improvement, and market benefits.

This paper is the first longitudinal empirical study to investigate the long-term effects of open innovation in terms of US manufacturing financial performance. It contributes to the body of knowledge by complementing previous open innovation studies, which generally focus on context-specific issues.

How does downsizing affect long‐ and short‐term organizational performance? The present study aims to address this important question and attempts to extend previous research by examining the effect of both personnel and assets reduction on long‐ and short‐term firm performance.

The paper uses data collected through secondary sources on 196 firms traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) between 1992 and 2001.

Econometric analyses indicate the positive impact of a combination of downsizing strategies on short‐term performance, and the negative effect of this combination on long‐term performance and high‐tech industry performance is negatively related to assets and personnel cutbacks. Whereas downsizing affects the short‐term performance of larger and established companies positively, it generally affects long‐term performance inversely.

This study offers a first examination of the effects of simultaneous cutbacks in personnel and assets. This combined strategy goes further than dismissing employees, since layoffs are linked to the sale of such tangible assets as product lines or manufacturing facilities. By so doing, firms downscale their activities commensurate with the reduction in workforce and are less likely to generate excess workload on the remaining employees.

The purpose of this study is to verify whether digital transformation strategy (DTS) could improve the organizational performance and provide a comprehensive analysis for enterprises on the necessity of implementing digital transformation in the context of China and draw on the perspectives of “Skewed conflict,” “minority dissent theory” and “too-much-of-a-good-thing.” This study investigates the curvilinear moderating role of cognitive conflict between DTS and performance.

An empirical investigation was used to collect a large sample data of Chinese enterprises’ digital transformation. A multiple linear regression analysis with SPSS was used to test the proposed hypotheses such as the inverted U-shaped moderating effect of the cognitive conflict.

In the Chinese context, DTS has a positive relationship on the short- and long-term financial performance. Moreover, this relationship was moderated by cognitive conflict such that the relationship between DTS and short-term financial performance could be further enhanced under the moderate cognitive conflict; however, the relationship between DTS and long-term financial performance was considerably influenced for higher cognitive conflict.

Based on the co-evolution of the information technology/information system (IT/IS) and business strategy, this study clarified the relationships among DTS, digital strategy and business and information technology strategies. By focusing on corporate strategy, this study further examined the effect of digital transformation on both short- and long-term financial performance. To further reveal the micro-psychological mechanisms underlying the effect of DTS on organizational performance, this study confirmed the inverted U-shaped moderating effect of the top management team’s cognitive conflict. Therefore, this research provides a new theoretical perspective for future research in the field of IT/IS, DTS and digital strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of different reorganization actions on long‐term financial performance of reorganizing small entrepreneurial firms in Finland.

An structural equation model estimated by partial least squares is applied to survey data from 98 reorganizing very small firms to analyze the effect of organizational change (OC), financial reorganization, management control system change (MCSC), and management accounting change (MAC) on performance.

Evidence supports three of the seven research hypotheses. Debt restructuring has a positive effect on performance. Liquidation of assets and OC do not show a significant direct effect but OC has a positive total effect. MCSC has a positive effect whereas the effect of MAC is negative. Compatibility of reorganization actions with the confirmed reorganization plan affects positively performance.

The sample is small. In further studies, larger samples should be used. Effect of reorganization on performance is self‐assessed by the firms. Further studies should apply more objective measures. The constructs of variables are intended for larger firms. New constructs should be developed for very small firms.

It is important that reorganization administrators and consultants prepare a careful reorganization plan to be followed during the program. In small reorganizing firms, it is beneficial to develop management control systems. However, one should be cautious when developing formal management accounting systems for very small firms.

This paper is the first one developing a structural model of the effects of reorganization actions on performance of small firms. It brings new evidence on the effects of organizational and control system change.

In this chapter, we reexamine the notion that socially responsible behavior by firms will lead to increased financial performance. By identifying the underlying processes, institutional settings, and actors involved, we present a framework that is more attentive to the multiplicity and conditionality of the mechanisms operating in the often tenuous connection between firms’ social behavior and financial performance. Building and expanding upon existing analyses of the CSP–CFP linkage, our model helps to explain the mixed results from a wide range of empirical studies which examine this link. It also provides a novel theoretical account to help guide future researches that are more attentive to conditionalities and contextual contingencies.