The answer to the challenging question, “Should one either invest in tangible resources or intangible resources/capabilities?” is still fragmented. In prior studies, more emphasis is given to tangible resources, while intangible resources have comparatively received minor attention, despite their significant role in the success of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Particularly the role of the intangible skills; intellectual capital, financial literacy (FL), and business experience (BE) in resource acquisition and sustainable competitive performance has missed in prior studies. Grounded on the resource-based view and upper echelon theory, this study examines the role of intellectual capital in sustainable competitive performance with a mediating role of resource acquisition. This research also assesses the moderating role of financial literacy and business experience between intellectual capital and resource acquisition. Data are collected through structured questionnaires from 384 owners/managers of Pakistani SMEs. After analyzing the data through structural equation modeling (SEM), the results indicate that intellectual capital helps managers in acquiring valuable resources, which in turn enhance sustainable competitive performance. Resource acquisition partially mediates the relation between intellectual capital and sustainable competitive performance. Financial literacy is a significant predictor of resource acquisition, but it does not significantly moderate the relation between intellectual capital and sustainable competitive performance. Business experience significantly boosts the acquisition of resources and strengthens the path between intellectual capital and resource acquisition. SMEs should encourage their managers to acquire unique, rare, and immutable external resources in the turbulent markets.

As an effective substitute for bank credit to ease financing constraints, trade credit plays an important role in the operation and growth of enterprises. This paper extends the literature by providing evidence on the relationship between trade credit financing and firm-level sustainable growth. Using the financial statement data of 20,089 Chinese A-share listed firms over the period 2003 to 2017, running a regression using the cross-section regression method and employing the two-stage instrumental-variable regression method in the endogeneity test, the study finds that trade credit has an overall positive and significant impact on the sustainable growth of Chinese firms, especially for firms with higher internal control ability, trade credit financing contributes more to sustainable growth, and the same way with private enterprises, whose growth depends more on trade credit compared to state-owned firms. We further find that the link between trade credit financing and sustainable growth of a firm is stronger in areas with lower access to finance, suggesting that firms with higher dependence on trade credit financing exhibit higher rates of sustainable growth in areas with weaker financial institutions.

The pharmaceutical industry has recently faced many environmental challenges and pressures due to increased environmental awareness. Prior researchers have found that green dynamic capability and green creativity are important aspects of sustainable growth and can provide a competitive edge. On the other hand, enhancing the environmental and social innovation behavior of employees through green dynamic capability and green creativity involves various issues, and there is a need to address these challenges. Therefore, this study’s objective is to examine the influence of green dynamic capability on environmental and social innovation behavior with the mediating role of green creativity and the moderating effect of a manager’s innovation proclivity. This study applied the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SME) method to test the hypotheses on a sample of 320 employees working in pharmaceutical industries in China. The main results are as follows. (1) Green dynamic capability positively influences green creativity and environmental and social innovation behavior. (2) Green creativity has a significant indirect effect on the relationship between green dynamic capability and social innovation behavior. (3) Managers’ innovation proclivity is significantly associated with green creativity and moderates the link between green dynamic capabilities and green creativity. This study provides theoretical and practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers to gain a better understanding of how to enhance green dynamic capability and green creativity to achieve the desired environmental and social innovation behavior for sustainability goals.

Due to the significant change in business organizations, scholarly interest has diverted from studying the determinants of financial performance to understanding the environmental activities, sustainability practices, and health and safety management practices. Despite the extensive literature, it is yet to understand either internal or external factors that improve health and safety management practices in SMEs. This research examines the influence of the internal factors—intellectual capital, information technology capabilities (ITC), and entrepreneurial orientation, and the external capabilities—government financial support, institutional pressure, and managerial networking on six health and safety management practices: management commitment, staff training, worker involvement, safety communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies. We researched 410 Pakistani SMEs from the food business industry. The results indicate that intellectual capital significantly improves management commitment, safety communication and feedback, and safety rules and produces; ITC significantly improves management commitment and safety communication and feedback; and entrepreneurial orientation significantly facilitates safety training and worker involvement only. In the external capabilities, government financial support has a significant influence on management commitment, worker involvement, safety rules and policies, and safety promotion policies. Institutional pressure has a significant influence on management commitment, safety training, safety communication, and feedback and safety promotion policies. Managerial networking significantly influences safety training, worker involvement, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotion policies of SMEs. Focusing only on the food industry is the major limitation of this research, this study recommends SMEs to give sufficient attention to their internal and external factors to enhance health and safety management practices. Further implications are discussed.

In the rapidly unpredictable economic and environmental era, the Arctic region stands at a pivotal crossroads. Globally, the rise in carbon emission (CEM) has continued to escalate in recent decades. Still, extant analyses have not sufficiently investigated the variables contributing to CEM dissipation, particularly in the Arctic Council. Therefore, this paper closes the knowledge gap by assessing the influence of environmental technology (EVT), economic policy uncertainty (EPU), renewable energy transition, and urban transition on CEM. Moreover, the study investigated the moderation effect of environmental governance on the interconnection between EPU and CEMs, incorporating historical data from 30 years ago (1990–2020). The research applied three econometric techniques, moments quantile regression, fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), and Driscoll and Kray standard errors (DSK), to ascertain the interaction among the research indicators. The study’s outcome established that (1) the switch to renewable or cleaner power supply, EVT, and governance improves ecological health. (2) Environmental policy uncertainty and urban transition disrupt ecological stability in the Arctic region. (3) Environmental government moderates the effect of EPU and CEM. The study provides policy‐makers, stakeholders, and politicians with essential policy recommendations to help establish resilient and environmental quality in the Arctic region and beyond.