Business Commons^™

Competitive Sustainability: The Intersection Of Sustainability And Business Success, Clyde Eiríkur Hull

Articles

Sustainability that beats the competition is different from sustainability that does not. Some who care very much about sustainability may not care at all about business success. However, they should. If businesses were to see that competitive sustainability leads to financial success, they would take it up and abandon nonsustainable practices

What Has Changed For Top Mba Schools Within A Decade In Terms Of Mindfulness?, Dr. Damla Aktan, Asst. Prof. Nilgün Gürkaynak

International Journal for Business Education

The concepts of “mindful consumption” and “sustainability” became indispensable parts of both academia and business life. Based upon an initial research conducted in 2012, this research aims to understand and compare the change within a decade in MBA curricula in terms of mindfulness content inclusion as well as sustainability and ecological orientation. The results compare the evolution of the integration of concepts to curricula since 2012 through the official websites of the top 100 MBA schools of the Financial Times Global Ranking in both 2012 and 2022. The study aims to summarize how the concepts of sustainability, mindful consumption and …

Making Sustainability A Core Competency: Consumer Response To Sustainable Innovative Products, Clyde Eiríkur Hull, Jennifer D. Russell, Monika Kukar-Kinney

Articles

Research suggests that sustainability may not be sufficient to yield a competitive advantage. Building on the resource-based view, this research evaluates three questions: (1) Can using sustainability as a differentiator lead to consumers choosing sustainable products? (2) Does product sustainability appeal more to environmentally concerned consumers? (3) Does product sustainability appeal more when paired with innovation? To test the hypotheses, an online survey of 344 US respondents was conducted. Consumers were given a hypothetical budget for an office chair and asked to choose between two products at a time. Hypotheses were tested with frequency and Chisquare tests and logistic regression. …

Societal Sustainability: Projects To Address The Three Dimensions Of A Sustainable Future, Braden K. Bateman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is an important, commonly discussed societal goal regarding assurance of resources for the world to be able to enjoy a prosperous future. Three primary dimensions of sustainability include environmental, economic, and social sustainability, and objectives for various projects can be aimed at any of the three dimensions to pursue societal sustainability. Solar installations, which can be used to pursue environmental and economic sustainability, convert abundant sunlight to electricity, displacing fossil fuel use that contributes harmful greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The regulatory environment at the state level has a significant impact on the feasibility of solar projects. At present, …

Strategies For Information Technology Small Business Owners To Sustain Beyond The First 5 Years, Edward Alan Rodarte

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses are the foundation of an economy and spawn innovation, but small business owners fail at an alarming rate because they lack strategies to sustain business operations. Since 50% of small businesses fail within the first 5 years, small business sustainability research is critical to support small business owners. Grounded in entrepreneurial theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to identify strategies information technology (IT) small business owners use to sustain operation beyond the first 5 years. The participants included four IT small business owners in the Southwestern United States who sustained operations beyond the first 5 …

National Culture And Attitudes’ Impact On Diffusion Of Sustainable New Technology-Based Products, Mayank Jaiswal, Lee Zane

New England Journal of Entrepreneurship

Purpose – Sustainability is increasingly becoming an essential aspect of technological innovations. In addition, the diffusion of sustainable new technology-based products appears to be uneven across the globe. The authors examine the effect of three country-level Hofstede measures of culture and two national-level innovation characteristics on the diffusion of Sustainable New Technology-based Products (SNTP).

Design/methodology/approach – Regression and Necessary Conditions Analysis were used to analyze a panel dataset of electric and hybrid vehicles sales from 2008 to 2017 across 89 countries.

Findings – Results suggest Long-Term Orientation (LTO) was correlated with SNTP diffusion, Indulgence (IVR) was partially correlated with SNTP …

Strategies To Improve Minority Business Enterprises’ Access To Capital For Competitive Positioning And Profitability, Darlene Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some minority business enterprises (MBEs) have limited capital for setting up their businesses, which often leads to business failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies MBEs used to access capital to improve their competitive positioning and profitability. The participants were six MBE owners from Alabama who demonstrated success at maintaining and securing working capital to maintain a profitable business for a minimum of 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and reviews of organization documents and websites. Using Yin’s five-step data analysis process, four themes emerged: owner financing, government loans …

Strategies To Improve Minority Business Enterprises’ Access To Capital For Competitive Positioning And Profitability, Darlene Hill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some minority business enterprises (MBEs) have limited capital for setting up their businesses, which often leads to business failure. Grounded in entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies MBEs used to access capital to improve their competitive positioning and profitability. The participants were six MBE owners from Alabama who demonstrated success at maintaining and securing working capital to maintain a profitable business for a minimum of 5 years. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and reviews of organization documents and websites. Using Yin’s five-step data analysis process, four themes emerged: owner financing, government loans …

Beyond The Green Iron Cage: Exploring The Macro And Micro-Level Influences On Executive Decisions About Sustainability Investments In Small And Medium Size Firms, Igor Estraykh

Theses and Dissertations

Although research on corporate environmental sustainability has shed light on different aspects of organizational and individual level factors that influence corporate decisions, it does not fully account for how individual executives within firms react to these forces and make decisions, specifically within small to medium size enterprises (SMEs). This study used a grounded theory approach to interview 19 SME executives from 13 different industries to explore how organizational and individual level factors influence their ability to evaluate and make decisions related to sustainability initiatives. The study found that SME executives faced isomorphic pressures for sustainability, individual agency pressures, significant resource …

Strategies For Increasing The Sustainability Of Small Restaurant Business, Sahara J. Givens-Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners who operate in the restaurant industry face many challenges and sometimes succumb to failures. Identifying solutions to avoid failure is important and will strengthen this community of entrepreneurs and help in terms of creating sustainability strategies. Grounded in Richard Cantillon’s entrepreneurship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business owners in the restaurant industry use to sustain business beyond 5 years. Participants included six small restaurant business managers who survived beyond 5 years and specialized in fast-casual food service within Chicago. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and participant reflections. …

Strategies For Achieving Sustainability Of Small Business Restaurants, Tanisha Thomas-Beard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small business restaurant owners perform unprofitably and fail within 5 years of opening. Small business restaurant owners are concerned about sustainability as approximately 50% of small businesses that start up do not last beyond the fifth year. Grounded in the general systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business restaurant owners use to grow and maintain profitability to sustain business beyond 5 years. The participants were five small business restaurant owners in the Southeastern region of the United States who sustained their business beyond 5 years. The data were analyzed using …