corporate social responsibility, endogeneity, financial performance, social performance, stakeholder management,

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to focus on the contribution of stakeholder engagement to firms' innovation orientation within the context of sustainable development. It investigates whether engagement with different stakeholders promotes sustainable innovation. Design/methodology/approach -The empirical analysis is based on an international sample of 656 large companies, drawn from the annual assessment for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. A logistic regression analysis was performed in order to test the hypothesized relationships between stakeholder interaction, knowledge management and sustainable innovation orientation. Findings -Empirical results showed that knowledge sourced from engagement with internal and external stakeholders contributes to a firm's sustainable innovation orientation, but that this knowledge has to be managed by the firm internally in order to be converted into new ideas for innovation.Research limitations/implications -Since the present study represents one of the first attempts to characterize stakeholder-driven innovation in a quantitative way, there are some limitations related to the used database that should be addressed in future research. Practical implications -The results show the importance for companies of connecting the business functions of stakeholder engagement and innovation, and find flexible mechanisms to combine access and transformation of relevant stakeholder information. Originality/value -The main contribution of the present research is to prove quantitatively that engagement with different stakeholders is a valid mechanism for promoting sustainable innovation within firms. This is done with a unique dataset, the SAM Group database. In addition, the present study will advance understanding on firm's sustainable innovation processes by framing this phenomenon as an organizational capability.

No abstract

Manuscript Type Empirical Research Question/Issue We explore how the combinations of firm‐level corporate governance (CG) practices embedded in different national governance systems lead to high firm performance. Research Findings/Insights Using fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis, we uncover a variety of findings. First, we show that within each of the stylized national CG models, there are multiple bundles of firm‐level governance practices leading to high firm performance (i.e., equifinality). Second, we provide evidence of complementarity as well as functional equivalence between CG practices. Finally, we demonstrate that there can be heterogeneity (“differences in kind”) in firm governance practices within each stylized model of CG. Theoretical/Academic Implications We build on the configurational and complementarity‐based approaches to make the following theoretical claims. First, governance practices within firm bundles do not always relate to each other in a monotonic and cumulative fashion as this entails higher costs and possibly over‐governance. Second, practices in bundles do not need to be aligned toward the insider or the outsider model (“similar in kind”). We argue that non‐aligned practices can also be complementary, creating hybrid governance forms. Third, we predict functional equivalence across bundles of CG practices which grants firms agency on which of the practices to implement in order to achieve high performance. Practitioner/Policy Implications We contribute to comparative CG research by demonstrating that there are multiple governance paths leading to high firm performance, and that these practices do not always belong to the same national governance tradition. Therefore, our findings alert of the perils of “one size fits all” governance solutions when designing and implementing CG policies.

No abstract