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The combination of business strategies and practices that tends to enhance sustainability of performance has been the subject of only a modest number of scholarly studies, but has been at the forefront of corporate agendas for decades. Dramatic shifts in performance and industry standing occur frequently among firms that develop technology products and services, the ‘technology innovators,’ in part because these firms operate in external business environments that tend to be turbulent. This exploratory study focuses on the integration of these five elements through case studies of three medium to large technology innovator firms operating under medium or high environmental turbulence. Interviews of 10 managers, directors and executives based on a semi-structured guide were augmented by qualitative self-assessment of leadership style, a validated instrument for assessing culture type, pre-interview surveys and secondary data. The results are: a single predominant leadership style setting an expectation of high performance was seen among managers in all three firms, a high presence of Aggressive/Defensive cultural style existed among the firms, and sustainability of performance was believed by interviewees to depend on effective integration of strong leadership style and culture, structure appropriate for innovation, and balanced emphasis on strategic positioning and operational effectiveness.

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental research was to utilize the theory of Knowledge Management proposed by Landaeta (2008) that relates the cross-project knowledge transfer methods across projects to knowledge assimilation of the receiving project, and project performance for practicing project managers in Pakistani organizations. Unique to this study was the analysis of knowledge assimilation as a mediator to knowledge transfer methods and project performance. The data was collected from 151 respondents working in different project-based organizations in Pakistan, and the data was assessed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that knowledge transfer and knowledge assimilation have significant influence on project performance. This study also proposes contributions to the theory and implications for the managers.

Sustainability as a business phenomenon has occupied the attention of academicians, practitioners, and consumers for more than three decades. While some firms emphasize on their own internal sustainability initiatives, there is a growing trend to implement sustainability across the supply chain. This increasing interest makes implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices very important for focal firm’s sustainability; however, the ability to create innovative products, processes, and ways of operating is crucial if an organization is to be sustainable. Although there have been studies that investigate innovation in the context of sustainability, their scopes are limited to a single perspective which often obscures the big picture of innovation, its creation, and its effects on firm performance. In this study, we will adopt a multi-level innovation perspective to explore the symbiotic relationships between innovation creation and the development of SSCM practices, and resulting sustainability performance. This research will contribute to supply chain management and innovation literature and practice by identifying the different innovation types that emerge when SSCM practices are being implemented and explaining the effects innovation patterns and SSCM practices have on sustainability performance.