Business Strategy and The Environment最新文献

{"title":"Sustainable Marketing Orientation and Sustainability Performance of Nigerian Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)","authors":"Hart O. Awa, Tamunotonye G. Ogolo, Eucharia C. Atuo, Doris A. Nnenanya","doi":"10.1002/bse.71608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71608","url":null,"abstract":"Sustainable marketing is a strategy for building ethical capabilities, cost optimization, social value delivery, environmental differentiation and competitive advantage. Underpinned by resource‐advantage (R‐A) theory, this paper studied how sustainable marketing orientation (SMO) factors, Eco‐innovation (EI), and operational openness (OO) individually and/or collectively interact to determine the sustainability performance (SP) of 13 major water producing SMEs in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A sample of 315 managers and officers directly or indirectly involved in marketing and sustainability programmes was studied through cross‐sectional design and self‐administered questionnaire. Analyzing the data and testing the hypotheses using SmartPLS, the results showed that SMO factors and EI significantly affect SP, with strategic integration (SI) having the most critical effect. Similarly, social commitment (SC), ethical capabilities (EC), and SI affect the flow of EI programmes; and EI and SI influence OO. Therefore, integrated systems that ethically and morally address environmental and social issues produce sustainability outcomes beyond the economic pursuit of R‐A theory. Sustainability adoption is no longer optional in modern markets rather a core driver of resilience, value creation, and long‐term application of heterogeneous, imperfectly mobile resources to enrich comparative advantage and R‐A's domain. Managers were advised to invest in social engagement and integrate the different layers of stakeholders in developing environmentally friendly programmes, suggesting a revision of R‐A theory and embedding sustainability into corporate culture and strategic planning processes.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Greenwashing Gambit: A Double‐Edged Sword in Crowdfunding Success","authors":"Filippo Corsini, Francesco Paolo Appio, Kenneth Amaeshi","doi":"10.1002/bse.71663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71663","url":null,"abstract":"The paper examines when greenwashing becomes a success factor in reward‐based crowdfunding campaigns aimed at financing environmentally sustainable products. While prior work has identified what drives success in such campaigns, it remains unclear when misleading environmental claims are discounted as cheap talk and when they instead contribute to funding outcomes. Building on signaling theory, the study explores how costly quality signals interact with potentially deceptive environmental messages (greenwashing risk) and jointly may contribute to crowdfunding success. Additionally, the paper investigates whether the “wisdom of the crowd” can act as a mechanism to prevent greenwashing from becoming a success factor. Using fsQCA on 253 Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns (2009–2024), for which greenwashing risk was expert‐coded through the Terrachoice seven‐sins framework, we identify configurations associated with funding success. The findings reveal a double‐edged pattern. Greenwashing co‐occurs with funding success when embedded within a rich bundle of costly quality signals and when funding goals are modest; in ambitious campaigns, success co‐occurs with low greenwashing, and the combination of high goals, greenwashing, and absent quality signals constitutes a highly consistent path to failure. An exploratory analysis of high‐participation campaigns further suggests that the “wisdom of the crowd” may not reliably penalize greenwashing when other credible signals are present. Overall, the study contributes to signaling theory by specifying the configurations under which potentially deceptive environmental claims gain or lose traction, rather than treating them as uniformly effective or inert. For practice, it offers crowdfunding platforms an observable screening rule: Campaigns that pair ambitious goals and dense environmental claims with weak quality signals form a high‐risk configuration that warrants targeted review before launch.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221358","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Climate Policy Stringency, Corporate Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Business Performance: A Synthetic Global Panel Simulation","authors":"Haiying Qin, Muhammad Tahir","doi":"10.1002/bse.71701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71701","url":null,"abstract":"This study develops and demonstrates an integrated analytics framework to examine how climate‐policy stringency could shape corporate sustainability performance through corporate energy behaviour, while accounting for digitalisation as a contextual amplifier. Rather than drawing inferences from observed firm‐level data, the study uses a transparent policy‐calibrated synthetic panel simulation design covering 20 countries, 30 firms per country and 8 years (2017–2024), yielding 4800 firm‐year observations across five sectors. The simulation design is calibrated to plausible ranges and stylised relationships reported in recent climate–energy–ESG research and serves as a reproducible testbed for methodological integration. The simulation workflow combines descriptive diagnostics, clustered‐error panel regressions, a random‐forest prediction model with out‐of‐sample evaluation, a simulation‐based difference‐in‐differences policy‐shock exercise with event‐style diagnostics and mediation decomposition with bootstrap uncertainty. The results show that the framework recovers the directional relationships embedded in the simulation design: Higher policy stringency and renewable‐energy adoption are associated with higher ESG scores, whereas higher energy intensity is associated with lower ESG performance. Digitalisation is positively associated with the policy–energy–ESG linkage within the simulated environment. Feature‐importance rankings indicate that the policy index remains the dominant predictor, followed by financial valuation (Tobin's <jats:italic>Q</jats:italic> ) and energy intensity. In the simulated policy‐shock exercise, treated countries exhibit a modest decline in energy intensity and a small increase in ESG relative to controls after 2020. These estimated effects are directionally consistent with the programmed treatment structure but remain statistically imprecise, illustrating estimator behaviour within the synthetic simulation rather than providing evidence of real‐world policy impacts. Mediation estimates further suggest that approximately 15% of the simulated policy association operates through the energy‐intensity channel under the assumed structural ordering. The study contributes a transparent and reproducible workflow for integrating regression, machine learning, DiD diagnostics and mediation analysis in synthetic sustainability‐policy research.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoupling Economic Growth From Material Use: A Bibliometric Review and Research Agenda for Business Management Scholarship","authors":"Encarnación García‐Sánchez, Antonio Rodríguez‐Domínguez","doi":"10.1002/bse.71703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71703","url":null,"abstract":"The imperative to decouple economic growth from resource consumption sits at the heart of current sustainability research, yet the role of businesses in this process has barely been explored. This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of 251 documents from the Web of Science (1998–2025) examining decoupling, the circular economy and material flow analysis. Drawing on co‐citation networks, keyword co‐occurrence, thematic mapping, bibliographic coupling and thematic evolution analysis using the Bibliometrix package in R, we map the intellectual structure and research dynamics of this domain. Three intellectual clusters emerge—planetary boundaries and degrowth, empirical decoupling analysis and social metabolism—alongside two active research fronts, whose intellectual core does not include authors primarily affiliated with business management. This is the central finding of the paper. We are dealing with a domain that has grown at a compound annual rate of 12.66% over nearly three decades, yet has done so without the systematic engagement of business management scholarship. Emerging topics—such as recycling, digital platforms and circular business models—point toward a future convergence. This review offers a business‐oriented bibliometric synthesis of the field and proposes a five‐strand research agenda for management scholars.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toward Digitalized Circular Economy Practices: Examining the Nexus Between Customer and Technical Requirements","authors":"Koppiahraj Karuppiah, Arun Pradeep, Naveen Virmani, Jose Arturo Garza‐Reyes","doi":"10.1002/bse.71704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71704","url":null,"abstract":"The adoption of circular economy ( <jats:sc>CE</jats:sc> ) practices has become indispensable for countries worldwide to minimize the adverse environmental impacts of waste. Digital platforms for <jats:sc>CE</jats:sc> practices have been anticipated to improve societal involvement. However, existing digital platforms for <jats:sc>CE</jats:sc> practices have failed to enhance such involvement. This study investigates the customer requirements (CRs) that improve societal involvement in <jats:sc>CE</jats:sc> practices through digital platforms and the technical requirements (TRs) needed to meet them. An integrated Fermatean fuzzy set (FFS)–analytic hierarchy process (AHP)–decision‐making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL)–quality function deployment (QFD) method was employed to determine the weight significance and to reveal the causal interrelationship among the CSFs, and to rank the TRs. The findings indicate that “Actual impact assessment systems,” “Integrated service support,” “Sustainability rewards,” “Opportunity for entrepreneurship,” and “Provision of digital product passport” are the top five CSFs, while “Automated Support System” and “Integrated Payment Gateway” are the important TRs. The findings of this study could help in enhancing the digital platforms for <jats:sc>CE</jats:sc> practices, which could increase societal involvement.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Employing Content Analysis in ESG Research: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda","authors":"Hamed Mohammad Esmail Mohammad, Karim Mahran, Osama Abouelela, Eyad Abutheeb","doi":"10.1002/bse.71679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71679","url":null,"abstract":"This study systematically reviews the application of content analysis in environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure research. Although content analysis is widely employed to examine ESG reporting, methodological approaches, disclosure channels and analytical practices remain fragmented, limiting methodological coherence and the cumulative development of knowledge. To synthesise this evolving field, 170 peer‐reviewed articles published in ABS 3, 4 and 4* journals were systematically reviewed following the PRISMA guidelines. Using bibliometric and thematic analyses, the study examines publication trends, methodological developments, disclosure channels and emerging research directions. The findings reveal substantial growth in ESG content analysis research alongside increasing methodological diversification, while also identifying important gaps relating to computational methods, disclosure channels and methodological standardisation. Building on these findings, the study develops an integrative framework grounded in the Ontology–Epistemology–Methodology (OEM) perspective to explain how methodological choices shape the interpretation of ESG disclosures. In addition, a Theory–Context–Characteristics–Methodology (TCCM)–based future research agenda comprising eight research propositions is proposed to guide future scholarship. By providing a conceptually integrated synthesis of methodological developments and future research priorities, this review advances understanding of ESG content analysis and offers practical guidance for researchers investigating corporate sustainability communication.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"482 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lean‐Green Effects and Digital Transformation: Unpacking the Role of Incremental and Radical Green Innovation in Driving Sustainable Performance","authors":"Ândrea Neves, Arnaldo Coelho, Catarina Proença","doi":"10.1002/bse.71657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71657","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of an increasingly dynamic industrial landscape, manufacturers are presented with a promising opportunity to enhance their competitive edge while advancing sustainability objectives. This study explores the effects of lean management (LM) and green management (GM) as strategic drivers of sustainable performance (SP), emphasizing the mediating role of incremental (IGI) and radical green innovation (RGI). Grounded in the dynamic capabilities framework, this study examines how LM and GM foster innovation and how digital transformation (DT) moderates these relationships. Using survey data from 310 Portuguese firms and structural equation modeling (SEM), the findings show that both LM and GM significantly contribute to IGI and RGI, which, in turn, enhance economic, environmental, and social sustainability outcomes. DT further strengthens the effects of GM, whereas its interaction with LM enhances the positive effect on IGI but weakens the effect on RGI. The study contributes to innovation and sustainability literature by demonstrating that innovation capabilities are essential conduits through which operational and environmental strategies translate into measurable performance. Practical implications highlight the need for organizations to balance efficiency with strategic innovation and invest in digital tools to scale sustainability efforts.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218348","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Media Freedom Paradox: A Global Study of Corporate Greenwashing","authors":"Imane El Ouadghiri, Jonathan Peillex, Federico Platania, Celina Toscano Hernandez","doi":"10.1002/bse.71699","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71699","url":null,"abstract":"Media freedom is widely regarded as a disciplining force that constrains corporate misconduct. We challenge this view in the environmental domain by developing the concept of <jats:italic>the media freedom paradox</jats:italic> . While a free media environment may deter greenwashing by raising the expected costs of exposure ( <jats:italic>the watchdog effect</jats:italic> ), it simultaneously amplifies normative pressures on firms to appear environmentally responsible, incentivizing symbolic disclosure over substantive action ( <jats:italic>the symbolic compliance effect</jats:italic> ). Using a sample of 3956 publicly listed firms across 46 countries over 2015–2025, we show that higher media freedom is associated with significantly higher levels of corporate greenwashing, supporting <jats:italic>the symbolic compliance effect</jats:italic> . This counterintuitive finding reflects the fact that media freedom intensifies normative pressure on firms to appear responsible faster than it improves the verifiability of their claims. This effect is amplified where environmental regulation is weak and where media markets are more privatized. A free press appears as a necessary but insufficient condition for credible environmental governance.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"73 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221369","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Conceptual Change and Sustainable Business Transformation: A Phenomenon‐Driven Review","authors":"Jean‐Pierre Imbrogiano, Tiina Onkila, Elizabeth Nichols, Lauri‐Matti Palmunen","doi":"10.1002/bse.71687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71687","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we ponder profound questions of societal sustainability transitioning through the concept of <jats:italic>conceptual change</jats:italic> —a category of change that, compared with other scientific domains, has so far received little attention in scholarship of business. We take a phenomenological stance on conceptual change to broach its relevance for the literature on sustainable business transformation. Through a phenomenon‐driven review of when and how such change occurs in for‐profit organizations—which yielded 16 empirical articles—we demonstrate both this relevance and how it is being overlooked to date. Based on the available evidence and following phenomenon‐driven interests for theoretical renewal, we outline a framework and pathways for paying greater attention to intricacies of conceptual change among business organizations as well as its interplay with other dimensions of societal sustainability transitioning.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"89 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perceived Green Innovation Ambidexterity as a Strategic Signal in By‐Product Recycling: Employee Green Behavior, Environmental Consciousness, and Job Satisfaction","authors":"Le Phuong Thao Quynh, Vincent Muller, Laurent Scaringella, Morgane Scaringella","doi":"10.1002/bse.71653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.71653","url":null,"abstract":"In by‐product recycling businesses, pursuing green innovation ambidexterity is important, but its benefits depend on how employees enact this strategic orientation. Drawing on signaling theory, we conducted two studies to examine how perceived green innovation ambidexterity is related to employee green behavior and job satisfaction, and investigate the role of individual environmental consciousness in these relationships. For Study 1, we used survey data from 308 by‐product recycling workers in six countries and found that employee green behavior mediated the relationship between perceived green innovation ambidexterity and job satisfaction. Individual environmental consciousness strengthened the effect of perceived green innovation ambidexterity and employee green behavior on job satisfaction. For Study 2, we conducted a scenario‐based experiment with 204 participants, providing supplementary evidence in an experimental setting. Overall, we show how employees interpret green innovation ambidexterity as a strategic signal and translate it into green behavior and job satisfaction, with responses varying according to environmental consciousness.","PeriodicalId":9518,"journal":{"name":"Business Strategy and The Environment","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":13.4,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}