ABSTRACT The circular economy—wherein waste is designed out, materials are circulated and nature is regenerated—has reached global recognition. From policy to business circles, it is seen as a viable strategy to address multiple societal grand challenges—including climate change and depletion of finite natural resources—and build a more resilient, competitive and resource‐efficient economy. The circular economy has also evolved into an established research field, and circular business models have become a key focus of academic enquiry. Yet, their implementation within the corporate context is slow. Hence, this article proposes a research agenda for circular business models scholars that advances the academic literature whilst being relevant for practice. Drawing from the strategic management field, our research agenda seeks to enlighten the relationship between circular business models, competitive advantage, and value creation as well as the multifaceted implications of managing and organizing in a circular context.
ABSTRACT This study examines whether concentrated voting control increases corporate tax avoidance in French listed firms and whether board gender diversity and audit committee independence constrain that relationship. Using 3388 firm‐year observations from 242 CAC All Shares firms from 2009 to 2022, the analysis combines hand‐collected voting rights concentration with three tax‐avoidance measures. Effective tax rate measures are transformed so that higher values consistently indicate higher avoidance, and book tax differences are used to capture reporting gaps between accounting and taxable income. The main estimations use generalized least squares with year and industry fixed effects, firm‐clustered robust standard errors, and system generalized method of moments checks for endogeneity. The results support an entrenchment view. Higher ownership concentration is associated with greater tax avoidance across the effective tax rate and book tax difference measures. Board gender diversity weakens this positive association, especially where female representation moves from very low to moderate levels. Audit committee independence also dampens the concentration avoidance link, while the COVID‐19 year strengthens it. The study contributes to governance and tax avoidance research by showing how voting control, board composition, and crisis conditions jointly shape tax risk in a civil law setting.
ABSTRACT This study builds a behavioral bridge between Upper Echelons Theory and Ansoff's Strategic Success Hypothesis by examining whether CEO technical orientation and power concentration help explain why firms facing similar turbulence achieve different levels of strategic posture and, in turn, different performance outcomes. SSH explains why performance depends on fit among environmental turbulence, strategic aggressiveness, and capability responsiveness, yet it is less explicit about why comparable firms reach different strategic positions, while UET explains executive influence but often leaves the posture pathway to performance underspecified. Using a matched firm‐year panel of Nasdaq firms that combines strategic‐posture measures, hand‐coded CEO attributes, and performance outcomes, the study tests whether CEO technical orientation and power concentration are associated with strategic posture and whether strategic posture mediates their associations with operating and expectation‐based performance. The findings show that stronger strategic posture is positively associated with both outcomes, that the two executive attributes help explain which firms achieve stronger posture, and that bootstrap indirect effects support statistical mediation through X1, while the posture–performance gap is more informative about uneven conversion of alignment into cash‐flow performance than about a stable independent performance penalty.
ABSTRACT Within environmental sustainability, firms have varying green choices: initiative, passivity, and adaptability. Green strategic deviation (GSD) refers to firms' actions diverging from industry conventions regarding environmental protection. We classify GSD into three categories: positive‐high, negative‐high, and others (positive‐low and negative‐low), which correspond to green initiative, passivity, and adaptability, respectively. This study investigates how GSD impacts risk‐taking (RT), using the sample of A‐share listed firms in China from 2010 to 2024. We find that positive‐high GSD reduces RT, reflecting initiative/reformism as risk absorbers; negative‐high GSD also decreases RT, indicating passivity/immobilism as risk dampers; whereas other GSDs (positive‐low and negative‐low) intensify RT, implying that adaptivity/centrism may involve risks. Notably, these relationships are stronger under environmental tax policy. Furthermore, national institutional embedding (NIE) acts as a boundary condition, contingent upon dominant political privileges and rigorous institutional oversight. Theoretically, it expands strategic deviation to green engagement (from synthesized to single dimensions), and fully considers deviation directionality (positive vs. negative) and hierarchy (high vs. low) rather than solely absolute value. In green practices, firms should remain vigilant against the pitfalls of moderate centrism; sustainable progress necessitates government mechanisms that drive firms forward and alleviate intermediate challenges through increased resource incentives and compliance scrutiny.
Financing choices often look routine-until a shock turns them into a strategic pivot. This paper examines how Eurozone SMEs reconfigure their financing mix when bank credit tightens, focusing on the Russia-Ukraine war as a destabilizing episode that accelerates strategic change in resource mobilization. The analysis uses firm-level SAFE survey data from 16 Eurozone countries (January 2009-June 2024; 28,397 observations) and estimates random-effects panel probit models with lagged credit-rationing measures, a war-period indicator, and interaction terms to identify war-specific shifts in financing behavior. Credit-rationed SMEs show a clear propensity to move away from traditional bank funding and toward alternative channels, and the war period intensifies this reconfiguration for constrained firms. Trade credit continues to act as a working-capital buffer, and informal loans become a fast, relationship-based liquidity backstop. Market-based financing, in contrast, weakens sharply during the war period, consistent with heightened risk aversion and reduced liquidity. Grant access does not rise in a systematic way for constrained SMEs, raising questions about targeting during crises. These findings position financing reconfiguration as an observable form of strategic change under geopolitical uncertainty and offer actionable implications for SME leaders, lenders, suppliers, and policymakers designing crisis-time support.
This study examines value co-creation in IoT platform ecosystems through a case study of the collaborative manufacturing platform E-LINK. We explore the evolution of platform data capabilities, user interactions, value creation, and the mechanisms that connect them. Through a conceptual process model, grounded in the Platform Data Capability concept, we introduce a layered perspective on value co-creation and classify interactions as superficial or deep. While superficial interactions may not fully capture users' intentions, they generate valuable data that, when combined with the platform's intelligence and connectivity capabilities, contribute to value creation. By leveraging organizational data capabilities, E-LINK extracts implicit industry knowledge and process-path data from superficial interactions, thus enhancing customer value perception and triggering deeper engagement. Our findings highlight two key aspects of platform value co-creation. First, superficial interactions are fundamental, serving as prerequisites for the accumulation of platform data capabilities and for shaping user cognition. Second, identifying tangible value-creation pathways is crucial, as it determines whether users' cognitive dimensions shift; therefore, fostering active engagement and resource sharing. We outline the evolution of platform data capabilities, user interactions, and value creation across three stages of the platform ecosystem. This study offers a deeper understanding of value co-creation mechanisms in IoT platforms. It provides strategic insights for platform managers to sustain a virtuous cycle of engagement and value generation.
Highlights Ansoff's book Corporate Strategy shaped Mintzberg's early intellectual direction. In the early 1970s, Ansoff catalyzed the field by connecting European strategy scholars. His institutional groundwork culminated in the Strategic Management Society (1980). Mintzberg never engaged with Ansoff's holistic school; in interviews he seemed puzzled and never revised his own strategy schools framework. Beyond debate, Mintzberg remembered Ansoff with respect and affection.
ABSTRACT This report, originally issued in September 1967 by the Long Range Planning Service (LRPS) of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and reproduced here as a historical document, traces the evolution of formal management and planning in US firms amid rising complexity, size, and technological change. Four stages emerge: (1) Implementation Cycle—directing and monitoring actions in stable settings; (2) Control Cycle—adding objective measurement against historical standards; (3) Extrapolative Planning—introducing forecasting, action programs, budgeting, and feasibility checks; (4) Entrepreneurial Planning—the advanced phase, with environmental scanning, strengths‐weaknesses analysis, objective setting, gap analysis, opportunity search, and strategic commitments. Each stage builds on the prior, shifting from reactive control to proactive, organized entrepreneurship. Advanced planning simulates the entrepreneurial genius by marshaling nine key talents: motivation (drive and energy), exposure (broad curiosity), sensitivity (insight into patterns), creativity (generating options), analysis (understanding consequences), judgment (wise selection amid uncertainty), leadership (inspiring followership), marshaling ability (organizing resources), and administrative ability (efficient organization and communication).
This editorial introduces radical uncertainty as a multifaceted phenomenon in entrepreneurship that extends beyond traditional risk‐uncertainty distinctions. Radical uncertainty involves unpredictable outcomes with epistemic gaps beyond knowable outcomes that challenge conventional decision‐making models. This Special Issue presents 13 papers examining how entrepreneurs navigate this type of uncertainty through cognitive mechanisms, relational processes, and value‐driven strategies. The contributions reveal radical uncertainty as ontological, epistemic, relational, and identity based. As a result, we propose an integrative model that connects the nature of uncertainty to navigation mechanisms and consequential entrepreneurial outcomes. In this way, the papers in the Special Issue advance our understanding of resilience, adaptation, and purpose‐driven action to cope with radical uncertainty.
In the face of increasing global economic complexity, Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the service sector encounter significant challenges in accessing and managing knowledge resources, especially during crises. While resilience and innovation are vital for survival and growth, existing research mainly focuses on manufacturing, leaving a gap in understanding service‐oriented MSMEs. Our editorial, together with the articles included in this special issue, engages directly with these critical challenges. Collectively, the contributions provide diverse perspectives and innovative analyses that advance our understanding of the field. By addressing urgent conceptual, methodological, and practical questions, this special issue aims to encourage scholarly discussion on how innovation orientation, organizational resilience, and technology readiness can assist service MSMEs in navigating crises and establishing long‐term sustainability, while also providing guidance for future research and practice.
ABSTRACT This systematic literature review makes three key contributions to resilience research in SMEs. First, it advances theory by synthesizing the Resource‐Based View and Dynamic Capabilities perspective to develop a novel two‐dimensional framework of SME resilience (Adaptability × Resource availability), identifying four distinct resilience archetypes: dynamic, complacent, vulnerable, and proactive. This framework addresses the theoretical fragmentation in existing resilience literature and provides a coherent classification system. Second, through rigorous analysis of 217 peer‐reviewed publications from 2019 to 2025 across multiple national contexts, the study systematically categorizes 11 primary antecedent groups, including innovation, dynamic capabilities, and organizational resources such as ambidexterity, adaptability, and absorptive capacity, offering the most comprehensive taxonomy of resilience determinants to date. Third, the research establishes empirically grounded linkages between resilience archetypes and performance outcomes, demonstrating that resilience drives creativity, operational efficiency, corporate performance, digital transformation, and reduces external dependency. The findings reveal a critical insight: effective resilience requires SMEs to balance adaptation speed against resource constraints, with prior crisis experiences enabling better institutionalization of learning and superior recovery outcomes. This framework provides scholars with a structured lens for future resilience research while offering practitioners actionable guidance on building context‐appropriate resilience capabilities. The study's multi‐national scope and crisis‐focused temporal frame enhance generalizability and practical relevance for SME managers navigating turbulent environments.
Drawing on the dynamic capabilities framework, this study addresses whether strategic agility directly influences organizational performance or operates through underlying mechanisms. We propose and test a dual-path model in which strategic agility affects performance through organizational resilience and business model innovation. Data from 241 firms in Metropolitan Lima, Peru, were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results show that the effect of strategic agility on performance is primarily indirect, operating through both pathways rather than through direct effects. This finding refines the dynamic capabilities perspective by indicating that the performance effects of higher-order capabilities may be realized indirectly through the organizational mechanisms they enable, positioning strategic agility as an enabling capability. Contrary to dominant expectations, environmental dynamism does not moderate the relationships between strategic agility, organizational resilience, business model innovation, and organizational performance, suggesting that the value of dynamic capabilities may reflect offsetting forces or operate consistently across varying levels of environmental dynamism.
The integration of Lean manufacturing (LM) with Industry 4.0 (I4.0), often referred to as Lean 4.0, is a vital approach to enhancing industrial performance. We propose and test a Lean 4.0 integration model in which I4.0 technologies enhance Lean practices, with the human factor serving as a key moderator. Using a cross-sectional survey of 130 industrial professionals in France and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), we find strong evidence supporting all three hypotheses. Lean 4.0 integration positively affects operational performance; the human factor is the strongest predictor of direct performance effects; and real-time performance measurement (measurability) mediates the relationship between integration and performance. The study emphasizes that Lean 4.0 is not just a technological upgrade but a strategic organizational change that shifts operational systems, human roles, and performance metrics toward digitally driven continuous improvement.
This study reflects the role of the psychological mechanism in linking perceived organizational support to innovative work behavior. Therefore, it aims to examine the direct effect of perceived organizational support on employees' innovative work behavior and evaluate the mediating effect of organization-based self-esteem and organizational identification (parallel mediators) in the previous relationship. Cross-sectional data were based on 508 sets of usable questionnaires collected from employees who worked in Saudi Arabia's financial sector. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were performed using Mplus Version 8.0 to examine the study's model and hypotheses. The findings indicate that there is no direct relationship between perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior. However, each mediating variable, organization-based self-esteem and organizational identification, has a mediating effect on employee innovative work behavior. By applying social exchange theory, this research provides a comprehensive understanding of how organization-based self-esteem and organizational identification mediate the relationships between perceived organizational support and employees' innovative work behavior. There are valuable insights for both researchers and practitioners regarding the beneficial impact of organization-based self-esteem and organizational identification on the relationship between perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior. This study expands the literature by discovering the mediating processes that explain how support fosters innovation. Decision makers in the Saudi financial sector can enhance organizational-based self-esteem and organizational identity by applying several strategies, such as assigning meaningful work to employees and participating in goal setting.
This paper explores how innovation and entrepreneurship can contribute to a sustainable future though the lens of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory. The central argument is that integrating CSR principles with innovative and entrepreneurial approaches enables businesses to achieve profitability while responding to environmental and social challenges. To enhance these processes, we examine sustainable innovations such as renewable energy and new waste management methods. These innovations not only benefit the environment but also improve business efficiency and adaptability. This study is grounded in secondary data analysis, utilizing a selection of relevant literature and documented case studies to build a conceptual framework to highlight the crucial role businesses can play in shaping a sustainable future through innovation and entrepreneurship, and demonstrates that CSR, innovation and entrepreneurship are three key elements to redefining business success. Sustainable entrepreneurship propels CSR, enhances innovation, meets regulatory requirements, and achieves sustained competitive advantage, all of which contribute to economically responsible businesses. However, they often face challenges such as limited access to capital and limited market opportunities. To address these challenges, we propose that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expand their sustainability initiatives through cooperation, government support, and access to green financial resources. This study proposes a theoretical framework that links all these elements and argues that sustainability needs to be embedded into organizational culture, and government incentives should be leveraged to encourage responsible business practices. Furthermore, this study highlights entrepreneurship as a catalyst for positive change: by establishing green businesses, entrepreneurs can transform markets and introduce new technologies to society.
Multiple crises, increasing complexity, and uncertainty continue to challenge organizations worldwide, leading to a rise in corporate insolvencies. Consequently, the relevance of risk management (RM) and risk governance (RG) is rising. The primary objective of RG is to ensure that RM effectively safeguards the organization from risks, thereby facilitating the achievement of competitive advantages. This study conducts a conceptual analysis of the revised COSO Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Framework 2017, which provides a comprehensive approach for integrating strategy and performance within enterprise RM, in the context of existing RG perceptions. The approach combines conceptual rigor with practical relevance, offering specific recommendations for organizations seeking to institutionalize RG: strengthening board-level risk oversight, embedding risk culture across all organizational levels, and aligning RM practices with strategic objectives and performance. Overall, this study contributes to both academic discourse and corporate practice by providing insights into the applicability of the revised COSO ERM Framework 2017 for the realization of RG.
This study focuses on the interplay of factors that influence the leveraging of effective corporate Twin Transformation (TT) which enables organizations to address burgeoning regulations, evolving customer needs, and rising awareness on sustainability. Although prior literature has explored TT, it lacks detailed investigation into the combination of factors that impact its effectiveness. Addressing this gap, our study adopts an exploratory two-step approach. First, we conduct 30 in-depth interviews with corporate transformation experts to identify the factors influencing effective TT, revealing seven facilitating and six hindering factors. Second, we employ a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) based on configurational theory to identify decisive combinations of factors that contribute to effective corporate TT. The findings reveal three necessary conditions: ecosystem-related factors, individual-level factors, and change management. This research extends the theoretical and methodological understanding of TT by providing empirical validation and a nuanced perspective on factor configurations that drive corporate TT success. We also offer actionable insights for managers within and across organizations to help them leverage factor combinations that enable effective TT implementation in the face of challenges or organizational change.
This study examines Blockchain Technology Integration in accounting and auditing as a governance infrastructure rather than a standalone tool. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach, we combine survey evidence from 500 professionals with 15 semi-structured interviews to test whether deeper integration improves transparency and fraud prevention, and to explain when those gains hold. The results show positive associations with clearer audit trails, stronger audit evidence, and stronger fraud prevention, with larger gains where assurance capability and digital maturity are higher. Interview evidence links these effects to tamper-evident records, faster traceability, and earlier exception visibility, while also showing the constraining role of legacy systems, governance design, skills gaps, and regulatory uncertainty. The study contributes a more precise account of how blockchain reshapes monitoring and verification in audit workflows. Because the design is cross-sectional and self-reported, the findings should be read as robust associations rather than causal estimates. Future research should use longitudinal designs, sector-specific comparisons, and cost-benefit analysis.
This study examines how interpersonal cultural barriers shape strategic agility in European enterprises and what this means for business excellence during agile transformation. Evidence comes from an electronic questionnaire administered in 2023 and 2024 across enterprises in the European Union. After screening, the final sample includes 456 firms. A 24-item instrument captures six agility dimensions, along with two cultural barriers: uncertainty avoidance and power distance. The results indicate agility levels that sit slightly above the midpoint across the measured dimensions. Higher cultural barriers align with weaker agile decision-making. Power distance is associated with lower collaboration and has a meaningful influence on structural agility. Uncertainty avoidance most strongly limits the agility of technology and innovation. All three hypotheses receive support, with effects ranging from moderate to strong across the agility dimensions. The study links Hofstede-rooted cultural barriers to a multidimensional strategic agility model and connects these insights to business excellence enablers, guiding excellence-oriented transformation. The cross-sectional correlational design limits causal inference, and sector coverage may constrain generalization, which invites longitudinal work and mediation-focused follow-ups. Managers can target technologies, values, and structures. Reducing uncertainty avoidance can deliver visible gains in agility. Change also benefits from staging that respects hierarchy while expanding autonomy. Better calibrated transformation can strengthen empowerment, psychological safety, and cross-functional cooperation while reducing interpersonal friction during change.
