Purpose: This paper aims to explore a new causal link between market orientation and business performance by introducing dynamic capabilities as a mediator of the relationship between market orientation and competitive advantages, which ultimately determine business performance.Design/methodology/approach: The mediating roles of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages are tested with a sample of 1,190 Portuguese firms using a structural equation model.Findings: The results confirm the hypotheses regarding the mediating roles of the competitive advantages (differentiation and cost leadership) in the relationship between dynamic capabilities and business performance. Additionally, dynamic capabilities also mediate the relationship between market orientation and competitive advantages.Practical implications: This study shows that business performance depends on the capacity of firms to collect the best market information on customers and competitors, to disseminate this information throughout their internal structure and ultimately optimize its use to respond appropriately to market challenges and trends. These will provide firms with a set of capabilities and a competitive advantage.Originality/value: This study provides empirical evidence on the understanding of the relationship between market orientation and performance, through the mediating effects of both dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages.

Purpose: – The development of innovation capability is an important topic for both managers and academics. However, studies that investigate which elements integrate innovation capability in the context of export market are very scarce. Drawing on the resource-based view, the purpose of this paper is to identify important dimensions in order to build a scale to measure innovation capability in exporting firms – the INNOVSCALE.Design/methodology/approach: – The study draws on data collected by online questionnaire in a sample survey of 471 exporting manufacturing firms. The results were obtained using structural equation modeling. Statistical tests demonstrate that the scale presents composite reliability as well as convergent and nomological validity.Findings: – The findings reveal that innovation capability is a higher-order construct formed by four dimensions: product development capability, innovativeness, strategic capability, and technological capability. The results also indicate that all four dimensions of the innovation capability scale are positively and significantly associated with export venture performance.Originality/value: – This study develops a new scale, the INNOVSCALE, which is a measure of innovation capability of exporting firms, and tests its impact on three measures of export venture performance, namely financial, strategic, and achievement.

Purpose: This study explores the perception of employees in textile industry firms in Northern Portugal regarding the influence of leadership and reward systems (RS) on their motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and job satisfaction (JS).Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was addressed to the employees of 12 firms, obtaining a sample of 256 valid responses, for which a structural equation model was estimated.Findings: The results showed that leadership and RS influence JS only through the mediating effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.Originality/value: This study makes empirical and theoretical contributions, testing the relationship between leadership and employees' JS and how this relationship can be mediated by RS, and motivation – both intrinsic and extrinsic. Moreover, this study was conducted in Portugal, country where these issues have not been researched jointly before.

During the health crisis caused by COVID-19, virtual reality (VR) proved to be useful for the tourism industry, allowing this industry to continue working despite the restrictions imposed. However, it remains to be seen if the impact of this sanitary crisis in the tourism industry influenced managers’ intention to adopt this technology in the post-pandemic period. To fill this gap, a qualitative methodological approach was adopted, using the MAXQDA20 software and interviews with managers of tourism enterprises. The results show that the willingness to invest in technology, the perception of VR as a business strategy, and the perception of the impact of the pandemic are factors that regulate the intention of companies to adopt VR. In addition, prior experience with VR and the perception of technical support are also important for its adoption. Thus, it was concluded that VR can be a valuable sustainable strategy for tourism companies to address the challenges imposed by the pandemic. However, adopting the technology depends on factors such as financial availability, business strategy, and previous experience with VR. Furthermore, tourism companies must also receive adequate technical support to ensure its correct implementation.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore a new causal link between learning, market and entrepreneurial orientations and firms' performance by introducing dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages as mediator variables.Design/methodology/approach: The mediating role of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages is tested using a sample of 1,190 Portuguese firms, and structural equation models.Findings: It is shown that dynamic capabilities mediate the relationship between the three orientations–learning, market and entrepreneurial–and competitive advantages of differentiation and cost leadership, and both competitive advantages lead to firm's performance. It is also shown that learning orientation is an antecedent of market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation.Practical implications: This research shows that firm's performance depends on the capacity of firms to learn, innovate, be proactive, take risks and collect the best market data. Indeed, by optimizing the internal management and knowledge dissemination, firms will develop a set of capabilities and competitive advantages that lead to an appropriate response to market challenges.Originality/value: This study tests the relationship between strategic orientations and firm's performance by taking the mediating effects of dynamic capabilities and competitive advantages into account. This research was conducted in Portugal.

Sustainability is a topic that is increasingly discussed in society and organizations, leading many companies to adopt communication strategies focused on this theme. The objective of this article was to identify in the literature the ways, means, or tools that companies use to communicate sustainability. This article was based on a systematic review of the literature on the topic, resulting in a final sample of 18 articles from 14 different journals. Seven potential topics were identified in the systematic review: (i) communication strategies, (ii) the relationship between communication and consumer behavior, (iii) communication and health benefits, (iv) sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR), (v) sustainable business models, (vi) sustainability and process optimization, and (vii) sustainability and environmental impact. The results obtained allowed us to conclude that the strategies that companies can use to communicate sustainability are as follows: use new technologies (internet, social networks, websites, etc.), make value propositions based on consumer behaviors, disseminate clear and consistent information, and ensure broader work teams, among others. These results contribute to the advancement of scientific literature and to the definition and implementation of more efficient and effective public policies that facilitate communication between companies and consumers. Finally, this paper offers practical suggestions to formulate sustainable communication strategies.