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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

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.

The Resource‐Based View of the Firm (RBV) has become an important stream of literature in strategic management. RDV's main prescription is that strategic assets are crucial determinants of sustainable competitive advantage and thus firm performance. Unfortunately, little empirical research has been occasioned to substantiate that prescription. Part of the difficulty in empirically testing RBV's main prescription lies in identifying resources capable of being strategic assets. This article combines RBV logic, the definition of strategic assets, Hall's studies, and the logic embodied in several streams of management literature to explain why strategic assets are intangible in nature, to show that not all intangible resources are strategic assets, and to demonstrate that company reputation, product reputation, employee knowhow, and organizational culture possess the characteristics of strategic assets. That is the foundation for the proposed hypotheses and proposed conceptual model presented in this paper for testing RBV's main prescription. We also discuss the practical, theoretical and empirical implications of this paper and make suggestions regarding empirical testing.

This purpose of this paper is to propose a model for the relationship between corporate real estate management (CREM) practices and an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate real estate (CRE) plays an important but poorly recognised role in organisational competitiveness.

The model was developed from the strategic management, organisational competitiveness, and CRE literatures. A total of 162 CREM practices from the literature were connected, where possible, with cost, innovation and differentiation sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Clustering similar practices allowed the summarising of competitive effects in those clusters and each of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Technical CREM practices were the focus of analysis as they constitute the traditional core of CREM.

Many gaps were identified in the theoretical connections between practices and sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Overall, cost dominated as the mode of competition most affected by the practices. Cost, innovation and differentiation made roughly equivalent positive contributions, but cost was most negatively affected by CREM practices.

The model is conceptual and provides a framework for aligning CREM practices with an organisation's competitive strategies, to build CRE‐based strategic capabilities for competitiveness, and to optimise practices' competitive effects. The holistic model directly links core CRE techniques with business outcomes and establishes a framework for further exploration of this important relationship.

Organisational competitiveness, CRE, and CREM are seldom studied. This paper provides a useful connecting framework for CRE researchers and practitioners to research and advance efforts to realise CRE value for organisations.

This study aims to critically evaluate resource dependence theory’s (RDT) assumptions and explanations about dependence and the dependent firm’s strategic options. The authors argue that RDT’s perception of dependence is problematic because it evaluates dependence as a purely negative situation in which all firms, by definition, seek to develop strategies to change the power structure of such relationships. On the contrary, the authors argue that there are situations in which dependent firms are in agreement with dependence and, therefore, develop strategies that do not aim to change the balance of power in the relationship, but rather to strengthen their position within the relationship.

The research is designed as a theoretical discussion. The authors critically evaluate and discuss current understanding and assumptions about RDT’s dependence explanations. Drawing on insights from the strategic management literature, the authors offer a new perspective on the problematic areas in the dependence explanations of the RDT.

Drawing on insights from the strategic management literature, the authors argue that dependent firms enjoy certain advantages due to the dependence relationship to gain sustainable competitive advantages over their rivals and potential competitors. These advantages include factors such as increasing growth potential, developing capabilities and competencies, building relationships of trust with powerful firms and leveraging their reputations and references that contribute to the sustainable strategic advantages of dependent firms. The authors believe that this study has the potential to spur new research that further challenges the assumptions of the RDT and empirically tests its propositions.

The authors propose a research framework on dependence as a strategic option that has the possibility of expanding RDT’s current dependence explanation.

The question of how to integrate strategic and entrepreneurial management to achieve a better balance between advantage‐ and opportunity‐seeking behaviours has received increased academic and practitioner interest in recent years. However, little consensus exists over the meaning of this concept of “strategic entrepreneurship” (SE), its constituents and its operation. This paper aims to address these issues.

In response, the paper reports a thorough review of SE's origins and current conceptualizations to map its core components and charts critical research directions for this exciting emerging field. Analysis of the terrain of SE reveals eight core components drawn from entrepreneurship and strategic management that captures conditions necessary for its application.

From this analysis, the paper offers an alternative model of SE, and charts four key research areas with accompanying research questions to inspire future research. These outcomes offer avenues to further sharpen the understanding of how SE might operate both in theory and practice.

A relative lack of analysis and integration of external factors influencing and shaping the process of SE represents a limitation. Also, whilst the authors have attempted to review, assess and understand its position in the entrepreneurship and strategic management literature, the full range of its strengths and weaknesses cannot be grasped.

The paper illustrates how these four question areas pose significant promise to better understand the development and application of SE in research and in practice.

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the role and effect of corporate culture as a unique strategic asset on the success of business models.

The paper is a conceptual exploration of several key constructs and their interrelationship. The argument is based on four related notions: that corporate culture is an “asset”; that it is a “strategic asset” in the sense of comprising a source of competitive advantage; that it might well be the “ultimate strategic asset”; and that culture as a strategic asset can be the essence or core of a business model. The paper also uses “empirical examples” of actual companies to study and demonstrate the core constructs and ideas. It also examines issues involving the key dimensions of corporate culture, the measurement of corporate culture, and certain related performance measurement issues.

The paper shows that corporate culture is a strategic asset, which, if managed properly, can be the key differentiating factor in a successful business model. It also shows that when not managed properly, can actually transform into a “liability”.

This paper demonstrates that corporate culture is a critical strategic asset because of its role in creating competitive advantage and successful business models. It suggests that corporate culture can also be the single most important source of competitive advantage in business models. Finally, it suggests that practicing leaders as well as investors and academics need to pay attention to corporate culture as a component of business strategy.

This paper contributes to the literature and to practice by examining the notion that corporate culture is a strategic asset in depth and examining the relationship between culture as a strategic asset and business models. It also takes steps towards a coherent framework for both scholars and practicing managers to frame and understand the issues involved in the management and measurement of this critical strategic asset.

This study aims to recognize the growing importance of Open Innovation (OI) theory and practice in the broader fields of Management and Information Systems, and focuse on the relationship existing between OI and a firm’s Business Strategy. Hence, the study aims at investigating the multifaceted OI – Strategy nexus at a business level, assessing how OI initiatives influence Strategy within the Mobile Telecommunications Industry and thus contributing to framing and classifying such inherent relationship.

A data-driven research approach is used, based on 45 qualitative interviews on firms operating in the Mobile Industry and involved in OI initiatives.

Six cross-themes the OI–Strategy relationship in the Mobile Industry revolves around are identified, i.e. OI and Competitive Advantage; OI and Strategic Positioning; OI and Business Models; OI in Networks; OI and Co-opetition; and OI and Resilient Business Advantages. For each theme, examples from the sample of interviewed Mobile firms are organized and reported. The key managerial issues emerging in the attempt to relate OI initiatives and the firm’s overarching Strategy are also underscored and organized in three streams, namely, designing an open business model; achieving competitive advantage through value capture; and nurturing OI as a dynamic capability.

The proposed reorganization of real-world OI and strategic initiatives in the Mobile Industry, together with the underscoring of key managerial issues, constitutes a comprehensive research agenda or roadmap, with value for both academics and practitioners.

Academic dialogue related to ‘organizational performance’ in strategic management has primarily centred around the industrial organization theory (IO) and resource-based view (RBV). Both perspectives, though conceptually dialectic, have served as primary competing theories governing research studies in the domain of strategic management. However, the confluence of these theoretical perspectives has not been adequately explored to advance a shared view of competitive advantage. This study aims to explore the likelihood of embedded commonalities between RBV and IO.

A bibliometric analysis was conducted to visualize the intellectual map of studies and knowledge development encompassing these theories. This was followed by a comprehensive literature review to understand how the business environment (BE) and organizational capabilities have contributed towards attaining competitive advantage.

This study established that connecting the intellectual boundaries of these theoretical perspectives would facilitate better comprehension of the processes and outcomes in organizations. Integrating the knowledge emerging out of this methodological blend, a convergence framework connecting the intellectual boundaries of both theories was presented.

The framework that emerged from this study would help in better understanding of organizational behaviour from a dual theoretical lens. It would also motivate future studies to consider RBV and IO as complementary theories rather than the current narrative of competing theories.

This study added to the efforts to achieve equilibrium between the BE and internal capabilities of organizations so as to maximize positive social externalities.

This study contributed to the limited attempts to leverage shared knowledge from a dual perspective using a comprehensive literature review in sequential combination with bibliometric analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to blend a resource-based view of the firm with the 5R Model of Organizational Identity Processes to offer a new Strategic Identity Management Framework to help organizations uncover, analyze and optimize their identity as a resource for creating sustainable competitive advantage.

This conceptual paper relied upon an examination of literature about sustainable competitive advantage, the resource-based view of the firm and the 5R Model of Organizational Identity Processes.

Synergies were found between the VRIO model and the 5R Model of Organizational Identity Processes. A new Strategic Identity Management Framework was created and a case study was used to illustrate its application.

Research is needed to validate, confirm and extend the use and application of the new framework within organizations.

The framework is anticipated to be particularly useful for middle managers because they are tasked with translating high-level strategies into action and leading lower level employees toward enacting the new or adapted identity claims.

Although ample organizational identity research exists, a framework for assessing identity claims for the purpose of achieving competitive advantage was lacking.