Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to present a research model that defines the inter-relationships between strategic green orientation, integrated product development, supply chain coordination, green performance outcomes and business unit performance. This paper aims to address innovation issues by integrating strategic orientation, internal business practices, supply chain coordination, and performance outcomes measures. Design/methodology/approach -The international data of 711 firms accessed through the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS IV) are used to validate this model. Findings -A firm's strategic green orientation involves past green practices, implementation of innovative environment improvement program and future commitment for environmental practices. This strategic green orientation is supported by a set of inter-organizational innovation practices such as integrated product development practices, effective coordination of supply chain network and relevant and measurable performance outcomes. Originality/value -The model, variables, empirical tests and results in this paper suggest a new understanding about strategic green orientation and its relationships with product development practices and supply chain coordination. The framework is intended both to explicitly inform senior executives of the importance of inter-organizational innovation practices such as strategic green orientation in terms of past, present and future practices as well as to the factors that effectively implement such strategic direction and commitment. It is also intended to provide a lens with which further research can be directed to enhance environmental reputation and outcomes of firms through new product development practices and supply chain network coordination and the sustainable long-term competitive advantages of the firms.

PurposeCorporate reputation is regarded as an intangible asset which differentiates a firm from others and attracts customers to repurchase and willingly pay a premium price for products. However, despite the perceptive association between reputation and financial performance, empirical studies report inconclusive results. The purpose of this study is to investigate this link more comprehensively using four different reputation attributes and firm characteristics in the context of high‐ vs low‐tech companies.Design/methodology/approachThis study operationalizes the corporate reputation as the four measures of Fortune's “America's Most Admired Companies” of 2008 and matched the companies with financial performance and firm characteristics measures from COMPUSTAT Research Insight for the period between 2001 and 2005. A total of 230 firms (108 in high‐tech vs 122 in low‐tech) over the same period were selected and stepwise multiple regression analysis probed the relationship between the corporate reputation and performance.FindingsThe key finding of this study is that such variables as corporate reputation are significantly and positively related with most indices of corporate performance measures while debt leverage affects profitability negatively. It was surprising to find that innovativeness turned out to have no impact on financial performance in both high‐ and low‐tech firms. The positive association between social responsibility and firm performance appeared to be partially supported because it showed significant impact on market‐based performance, but not on accounting‐based performance.Originality/valueThis study confirms the resource‐based view that a valuable, inimitable, and non‐substitutable asset such as corporate reputation leads firms to enhance financial and market performance. However, the effect is contingent on firm characteristics such as firm size, R&D intensity, debt leverage ratio, and capital intensity. Corporate reputation appears to emerge as a critical dimension of benchmarking of a firm performance.

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Information management is a core supply chain activity that is increasing in importance as firms strive to become more responsive to growing customer demand for innovative products. However, effective processing of information from customers and suppliers remains a struggle for most firms. Absorptive capacity provides a useful view of information processing activities, but the current understanding of how firms use it to improve performance and why some firms seem to develop it while others do not remains unclear. This study is grounded in information processing theory, and examines the role of absorptive capacity in linking a firm's responsive strategy and performance. We test a structural equation model on data from 711 manufacturing firms, and validate our results on a second sample of 677 firms. Our study makes three major contributions by providing evidence that: (1) absorptive capacity is motivated by a firm's responsive strategy; (2) it fully mediates the relationship between responsive strategy and firm performance, indicating that absorptive capacity is a necessary competence for firms that aim to deliver innovative products to customers; and (3) the relationship between responsive strategy and absorptive capacity is U‐shaped, indicating that when firms attempt to blend efficient and responsive strategies, their ability to develop absorptive capacity is diminished.

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