Does creating shared value make a difference? Exploring different determinants of firm competitiveness

The concept of creating shared value (CSV) (Porter & Kramer, 2006, 2011) opens a new chapter for corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies, yet the literature is riddled with ambiguity, and lacking empirical evidence. Drawing on signaling (Stiglitz, 2000; Spence, 2002; Connelly et al., 2011) and organizational commitment theories (Meyer & Allen, 1984, 1997), the study defines the CSV approach incorporating intangible and soft dimensions — commitment and compliance, from behavior and motivation perspectives. By applying secondary data methodology, the study operationalizes different CSR approaches by clustering various CSR behaviors of Chinese public companies and extends the study covering emerging economies. The results provide valuable empirical evidence that the CSV approach maximizes the impact of CSR on firm competitiveness, contributing to the theoretical development of the concept. It also contributes to the literature on firm competitiveness by offering an integrated framework consolidating resource-based view (RBV) (Barney, 1991), dynamics capability (Teece et al., 1997; Teece & Pisano, 2003; Teece, 2007, 2012; Mousavi et al., 2018, 2019), and CSV perspectives. By theoretically constructing the RBV perspective including financial and technological capacity while the dynamic capability perspective measured by management team education diversity, the paper also explored their corresponding impacts on firm competitiveness.