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Outlines a survey carried out among 33 large corporations in the UK, which aimed to discover the level of dynamics in the competitive environment, the level of dynamics in strategy development and the performance of the organization. Outlines the methodology used and the results obtained. Concludes that organizations can be successful in any competitive environment but that organizations with dynamic approaches to strategy development achieve superior performance in all competitive environments.

Although the role of the internal competitive work environment is important, it remains understudied in a business-to-business (B2B) selling context. Grounded in job-demands resources theory, this study aims to investigate the relationships between internal competitive work environment, working smart, emotional exhaustion and sales performance.

Data were gathered from 147 salespeople working for a financial service firm. Sales performance ratings were reported by supervisors. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.

This study finds dual effects of the internal competitive work environment on salesperson’s job outcomes. Although such an environment improves working smart behaviors, which increases sales performance, it also increases emotional exhaustion, which reduces sales performance.

This study extends job-demands resources theory by proposing internal competitive work environment as a challenge demand and extends the theory by proposing that a salesperson’s time management skills as a personal resource that may reduce such environment’s deleterious effects.

Sales managers should consider the complex nature of increasing competition within the organization and assess the ability of their workforce to effectively manage their time. Training programs that develop time management skills should also be promoted.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to consider the multifaceted effects of the internal competitive work environment in a B2B sales context. By focusing on the duality of the work environment, this study provides a greater understanding of the influences of organizational factors on sales performance.

Our study proposes a resource environment view (REV) of competitive advantage by unpacking the environmental origins of a firm’s competitive advantage. The key tenet of the REV is that the heterogeneity and imperfect mobility of strategic factor markets and institutions across countries explain how firms based in different countries would likely both create and sustain a competitive advantage. In particular, our study introduces the notion of “the paradox of environmental embeddedness.” The paradox lies in the fact that the same environmental conditions – in terms of strategic factor markets and institutions – that enable firms to create a competitive advantage can paradoxically also create a situation in which it is more difficult for these firms to sustain an advantage. Another important aspect of our study is that, to enhance our understanding of how firms manage the paradox of environmental embeddedness, our study specifies the resource environmental conditions under which firms’ internal and external resource-oriented strategies – that is, the development of dynamic capabilities and interventions in the country resource environment – are more beneficial when managing the environmental paradox. Overall, our theorizing has important implications for strategic management theory and practice.

Literature suggests that there are sets of common variables that are capable of explaining organisational performance differentials. These variables are used to examine performance variance and its contribution to organisation profitability. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of large construction organisations’ performance in South Africa using a partial least squares path analytic method.

This study examines the interrelationship between a number of constructs, namely, organisational characteristics, resources/capabilities, competitive strategies, business environment and performance, using a questionnaire survey to obtain data from 72 large construction organisations in South Africa. Using a path analytic approach, the paper examines the relationship between the constructs discussed in the study.

The findings from the analysis of the data show that organisational characteristics do indeed influence the performance of organisations, and that the business environment is capable of moderating the relationship between competitive strategies and performance. The results, however, indicate that organisations that combine sustained organisational characteristics and strategy tend to experience high performance over those that do not.

The study findings have implications for management practice, as it could help managers of construction organisations to acknowledge the influence of organisational characteristics, unique resources/capabilities, competitive strategies and business environment as sources of competitive advantage. The study contributes to the current debate on the causes of performance differentials among large construction organisations.

This paper aims to analyze the relationships between four constructs – business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, supply chain structures, and firm business performance.

By establishing a conceptual model and conducting structural equation modeling analysis using collected industrial survey data, the study provides a systemic understanding of the relationships between the individual business environment characteristics, the individual competitive priorities and supply chain structures, and the impact of alignment between these elements on firm business performance.

Results of the study reveal that the differences in both strategic and supply chain responses to business environment between high‐ and low‐performing firms in the US textile manufacturing industry are striking. The findings provide evidence to corroborate the impact of the alignment between business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, and supply chain structures on firm business performance.

A conceptual model linking business environment characteristics, competitive priorities, supply chain structures, and firm business performance is first proposed and empirically investigated. The appropriate strategic responses and supply chain structures designed to the specific business environment characteristics are quantitatively identified. The nature of these relationships and the effect of alignment are revealed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of human capital (HC) on service innovation advantage (SIA) and business performance (BP) in service sector firms, and how external environmental factors influence these relationships.

This study utilized a cross-sectional mail survey of a random sample of Australian service firms with the unit of analysis being at the firm level. In total, 228 usable responses were received.

The overall findings of this study show that HC is positively related to the creation of value or SIA which in turn results in rent generation for firms. The results further show that the effect of SIA on BP is influenced by environmental dynamism and competitiveness with dynamic environments enhancing the effect while competitive environments weakening it.

The findings demonstrate the complementarity between the resource based theory and contingency theory as they clearly shows that the value of innovation as a firm’s capability is enhanced or weakened within a business environment that is more dynamic or competitive.

The findings demonstrate the importance of HC, and, thus, encourage managers to seek ways to harness and leverage HC for improving innovation and BP. In addition, the study also helps managers to understand the contingency effect of business environment on the effectiveness of innovation, hence, helping them in deliberating firms’ strategy in different business environments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which examines the effectiveness of HC as organizational resource for building SIA as a source of organizational competitive advantage.

In the evolving digital work landscape, where cyberloafing has become a notable challenge, this study aims to investigate the mechanisms through which organizations can effectively reduce such behaviors. Specifically, the research explores the role of employee adaptability in mitigating cyberloafing, taking into account the influences of temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and competitive work environments.

Utilizing the broaden-and-build theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, we analyzed data from 245 employees through structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate how various factors influence cyberloafing.

The results indicate that employee adaptability significantly mitigates cyberloafing and serves as a mediating factor between temporal leadership, teamwork attitudes, and the impact of competitive work environments on cyberloafing. Temporal leadership and teamwork attitudes positively correlate with increased adaptability, thereby reducing cyberloafing. Conversely, competitive work environments, while slightly enhancing adaptability, substantially increase cyberloafing.

The study contributes new insights into the dynamics of cyberloafing, emphasizing the critical roles of adaptability, teamwork attitudes, and temporal leadership in reducing such behaviors. It underscores the need for organizations to foster a supportive culture that minimizes competitive pressures and promotes teamwork and leadership strategies conducive to high productivity and minimal cyberloafing. This research offers practical implications for designing workplace strategies aimed at boosting productivity and curbing undesirable online behaviors during work hours.

Although the notion of competitiveness lies at the heart of business strategy development, its definition is often vague and does not lend itself to a measurement process. The competitiveness of an organization depends on a number of factors which are interrelated and cannot be looked at in isolation. The main factors include: customer values, shareholder values and ability to act and react within a competitive environment. Proposes a holistic approach for defining competitiveness together with a mapping process which encompasses different dimensions of competitiveness. The mapping process enables the measurement of competitiveness while highlighting the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within a competitive environment which form the basis of business strategy formulation.

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.

To achieve a full understanding of the role of marketing from plan to profit requires a knowledge of the basic building blocks. This textbook introduces the key concepts in the art or science of marketing to practising managers. Understanding your customers and consumers, the 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) provides the basic tools for effective marketing. Deploying your resources and informing your managerial decision making is dealt with in Unit VII introducing marketing intelligence, competition, budgeting and organisational issues. The logical conclusion of this effort is achieving sales and the particular techniques involved are explored in the final section.