Sustainability and Competitive Advantage

Competitive Advantage ◽

Shared Value ◽

Economic Downturn ◽

Complex Issue ◽

Stakeholder Pressure ◽

Environmental Objectives ◽

Sustainable Value ◽

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility have been perceived for many years by companies only as an annoyance, involving regulations and extra cost. The recent economic downturn and increasing stakeholder pressure have forced businesses to embrace the complexity and interdependencies between shareholder value and sustainable value. Sustainability-driven innovation is the key to overcoming the old conflict between economic and social objectives and, as in the case of Patagonia Inc., is paying off for a growing number of companies as it generates a sustainable competitive advantage. This chapter explores ways in which corporations can pursue economic, social, and environmental objectives simultaneously while creating shared values. It also looks into the very complex issue of measuring both the business and social impacts of shared-value strategies.

Handbook of Research on Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibilities - Advances in Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage ◽

Sustainability and Competitive Advantage

10.4018/978-1-4666-7476-9.ch016 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 330-355

Author(s):

Francesco Rattalino

Keyword(s):

Competitive Advantage ◽

Shared Value ◽

Economic Downturn ◽

Complex Issue ◽

Stakeholder Pressure ◽

Environmental Objectives ◽

Sustainable Value ◽

Ethical Standards and Practice in International Relations - Advances in Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage ◽

The Influence of CSR on B2B Relationships

10.4018/978-1-5225-2650-6.ch001 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 1-21

Author(s):

Susan Saurage-Altenloh ◽

Phillip M. Randall

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Brand Equity ◽

Brand Management ◽

Corporate Brand ◽

B2b Relationships ◽

Management Experience ◽

The chapter addresses how ethical actions deliver value through sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has a proven role in developing audience trust that increases brand equity among target audiences and stakeholders, thus ensuring that the brand sustains its competitive advantage through improved profitability and reputation in the market. Not only do businesses have a social responsibility to the markets from which they earn revenues, but buyers expect ethical businesses to have an established CSR program in place. Businesses that engage in CSR activities within the process of corporate brand management experience stronger reputation that drives loyalty and sales, resulting in a competitive, sustainable market advantage.

Promoting a strategic business focus to balance competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility – missing elements

Social Responsibility Journal ◽

10.1108/srj-04-2016-0054 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 78-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Alan J. Fish ◽

Jack Wood

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Management Practices ◽

Leadership Teams ◽

Strategic Human Resource Management ◽

Shared Value ◽

Content Type ◽

Business Outcomes ◽

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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). Research limitations/implications 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. Practical implications 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. Social implications 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. Originality/value 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.

The impact of Strategic Leadership Styles on Financial Business Performance and Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Travel Agencies and Hotels: Corporate Social Responsibility as a Mediator

Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality ◽

10.21608/jaauth.2021.83320.1196 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 70-90

Author(s):

Raghda Badr El-Deen ◽

EL-Hussein Ali

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Leadership Styles ◽

Business Performance ◽

Strategic Leadership ◽

Travel Agencies ◽

Corporate Social ◽

The Impact

Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Case Study of Leading Noodle Companies in Nepal

International Journal of Social Sciences and Management ◽

10.3126/ijssm.v4i4.17940 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 275-283

Author(s):

Dinesh Raj Pant ◽

Opas Piansoongnern

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Business Environment ◽

Sustainable Business ◽

Mutual Cooperation ◽

The debate in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) was ongoing from the beginning of the twenty first century. The role of stakeholders and CSR in achieving sustainable business has increased in recent years. The purpose of this qualitative study was to achieve deeper understanding about the CSR initiative that may contribute to achieve SCA for the company. A single case study with three unit of analysis was used to achieve a deeper understanding on how CSR in planned, aligned and implemented in the noodle companies in Nepal and how those initiative may contribute to the company in the form of SCA and to community in the form of societal development.The stakeholder theory was used as theoretical framework with semi structured interview as data collection method. For the data collection purpose, two groups of stakeholders were interviewed. The first group was internal stakeholders including managerial level employees and second group consisted of external stakeholders including suppliers, customers, local community members and environmental activist. The findings of the study clearly indicated that, the strategic approach to CSR contributes to company in the form of SCA and helps in fulfilling the expectations of the local communities. The findings indicated that, stakeholder management is a key tool in today’s business environment and strategic CSR initiatives contributes in sustainable business and mutual cooperation between company and stakeholders.Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 4, Issue-4: 275-283

Dynamics of Competitive Sustainable Advantage

Dynamics of Competitive Advantage and Consumer Perception in Social Marketing ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-4430-4.ch005 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 98-125 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Francesco Rattalino

Keyword(s):

Employee Satisfaction ◽

Common Denominator ◽

Business Practices ◽

Doing Business ◽

Environmental Objectives ◽

Sustainable Advantage ◽

Sustainable Value ◽

Intrinsic Complexity ◽

The emergence of sustainability as a common denominator of today’s way of doing business is undisputable. Yet, most companies see corporate social responsibility as an annoyance, involving regulations and extra cost, therefore missing the intrinsic complexity and interdependencies between shareholder value and sustainable value. This chapter explores ways in which corporations can pursue economic, social, and environmental objectives simultaneously while creating shared values. True sustainability, as in the case of Patagonia Inc., is a great source of competitive advantage for the company, since it can increase employee satisfaction, decrease its carbon footprint, and maintain good business practices while reaping the benefits continued revenue and profit growth.

Is Corporate Social Responsibility Really Able to Create Long-Term Sustainability Value?

10.4018/978-1-7998-8501-6.ch010 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 194-216

Author(s):

Manuel Moreno ◽

Elena Mañas-Alcón ◽

Oscar Montes-Pineda ◽

Beatriz Fernández-Olit

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Value Creation ◽

Social Values ◽

Shared Value ◽

Csr Strategies ◽

Sustainable Value ◽

Short Run ◽

This chapter analyzes the academic debate regarding the need to adopt a long-term vision of CSR strategies. It's based on the premise that short run is the dominant approach in financial markets, and this situation could be negatively conditioning the long-term sustainability value creation. New social values may be requesting different management decisions from companies, prioritizing long-term over short term results. A thorough literature review has been done across specialized journals, international reports, and key legislation, trying to determine and model the elements facilitating this sustainable value creation. It shows the alignment needed between CEO and their shareholders within the framework of corporate governance to create long-term value within CSR. There are signs of a possible financial over-performance of companies that strategically create a shared value with stakeholders based on environmental, social, and governance objectives, selected due to their materiality. A model is proposed to consider a long-term approach creating sustainable value in organizations.

Corporate social responsibility and stakeholders: Review of the last decade (2006–2015)

Business Systems Research Journal ◽

10.1515/bsrj-2017-0011 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 133-146 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Andrija Barić

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Business Model ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Information Communication Technologies ◽

Information Communication ◽

Natural Connection ◽

AbstractBackground: Globalization, strong development of information-communication technologies and the emergence of new burning challenges for the global communities enabled the concept of corporate social responsibility to be perceived as a business model that allows for successful differentiation of companies, as well creating sustainable competitive advantage. Objective: The goal of the paper is to offer a short overview of the role of internal and external stakeholders within the concept of corporate social responsibility and point out the importance of quality relationships between the company and its stakeholders with the aim of improving the standard of living of all community members. Methods/approach: The paper is based on a systematic analysis of previously published relevant international scientific papers in the field of corporate social responsibility, stakeholder theory and information-communication technologies. Results: This paper demonstrates that the concept of corporate social responsibility has gone, in its several decades of existence, from the "unnecessary dependency" phase to the critical business model phase. Conclusions: As there is a natural connection between the concept of corporate social responsibility and the stakeholders, it can be concluded that the quality of the relationship between the company and its stakeholders represents a key factor that affects the success of the company in its notion of differentiating itself from competitors and creating sustainable competitive advantage.

Corporate social responsibility: a pathway to sustainable competitive advantage?

International Journal of Bank Marketing ◽

10.1108/ijbm-01-2019-0037 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 159-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Syed Shujaat Ali Shah ◽

Zia Khan

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Banking Industry ◽

Continuance Commitment ◽

Content Type ◽

Moderation Effect ◽

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on affective and continuance commitment. It analyses the moderation effect of relationship age on the CSR-commitment relationships in the banking industry of an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach Partial least squares based structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed hypotheses in a sample of 360 respondents collected from the retail banking sector of Pakistan. Findings Customers’ CSR perceptions directly and positively influence affective and continuance commitment. The findings also confirm that relationship age is a positive moderator of the CSR-continuance commitment relationship, but does not influence the CSR-affective commitment relationship. Practical implications Marketers should use CSR activities to enhance customers’ commitment. Given the moderating role of relationship age, marketers should devise different strategies for new and long-term customers. The results clearly show that relationship age affects the CSR-continuance commitment relationship. Long-term banking customers will more likely be in a binding relationship when their banks do CSR activities and disseminate those activities to long-term customers. The study explicitly indicates that maintaining long-term customers’ base through CSR activities helps the marketers in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. Originality/value First, it is the pioneering study to empirically investigate the understudied relationship between CSR and continuance commitment. Second, it examines the moderation effect of relationship age on CSR-commitment relationships in the banking industry of an emerging economy.

The important role of corporate social responsibility capabilities in improving sustainable competitive advantage

Social Responsibility Journal ◽

10.1108/srj-11-2015-0163 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 642-653 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eun-Mi Lee ◽

Hyun Jung Lee ◽

Jae-Hyeon Pae ◽

Seong-Yeon Park

Keyword(s):

Social Responsibility ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Customer Orientation ◽

Price Premium ◽

Social Responsiveness ◽

Content Type ◽

Purpose This study examines the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) capabilities on corporate association and, consequently, customer orientation and price premium, which are key to competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach This study adapts survey instrument targeting employees of a Korean firm. A total of 168 usable questionnaires were collected from seven Korean firms that were conducting CSR and public relations (PR) activities. Findings CSR and PR capability induce positive CSR and corporate ability (CA) associations, which improve customer orientation and increase price premium. The results of our empirical study indicate that a company should consider both CSR and PR capabilities to enhance its employees’ positive attitude to its CSR activities and CA association. Research limitations/implications This study has undertaken a holistic examination of important role of CSR and PR capability and their outcomes, namely customer orientation and price premium. Originality/value Understanding of CSR capabilities in terms of competitive advantage is imperative to the establishment of strategic CSR initiatives. This study attempts to answer whether corporate capabilities for social responsiveness improve a company’s competitive advantage.