From just another buzzword a few decades ago, sustainability has become a hot topic on strategists’ agenda—and it is here to stay. The growing pressures on businesses to address the ever-complex sustainability challenges and to (consequently) assess their performance against a variety of sustainability-related goals are imperatively asking for a new paradigm—grounded on a global business ethics perspective and able to support a fundamental change in the traditional ways of doing business; placed at the heart of any company’s way of doing business, business models are instrumental in these transformative changes, both as triggers (in the short run) and backbones (in the medium to long run). Building on existing literature and capitalizing on the opportunities provided by inter- and trans-disciplinary research, this theoretical analysis aims to (re)frame the (research in) search of the most appropriate business models to address sustainability challenges. Thus, the purpose of the study is: (1) To advocate for a complex yet contingent approach at the business level—able to capture the bigger picture (the sustainability imperative) without missing its idiosyncrasies (the best fitted to the business model context)—when searching for strategic performance; (2) to propose an integrative, multi-level conceptual framework (able to provide widespread synergies for companies and their broader environment) as guidance for this kind of approach, and to suggest specific directions with respect to its implementation.

Built on the premise that a company’s competitiveness is given by its robust financial performance and the strength of its position on the market, but only under conditions of sustainability, this study aims to investigate the key factors of company competitiveness while considering sustainability issues. The two research objectives were: (1) to identify and analyze the key factors of sustainable competitiveness at company level (2) to find sector-related discrepancies regarding the identified factors. To achieve them, a horizontal analysis covering ten financial years (2012–2021) was performed on a sample of 1,449 companies from four global economic sectors (Consumer Cyclicals, Energy, Health Care, and Technology) – using Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and ANOVA. Nine factors (both financial and non-financial) were found: liquidity, profitability, revenue efficiency, inventory management efficiency, ESG performance, receivables management efficiency, R&D efficiency, book value, and market value. Of them, ESG performance has emerged as an independent factor based on non-financial variables, its introduction into the research model being one of the study’s novelties. Significant mean differences were found between the nine factors, depending on the sector, which allowed the ranking of sectors in terms of sustainable competitiveness, in descending order: Health Care, Technology, Consumer Cyclicals, and Energy.

Strategic Management between the Constraints and Incentives of Globalization – the Role and Contribution of Business Ethics and CSR | InTechOpen, Published on: 2011-07-27. Authors: Claudia Ogrean and Mihaela Herciu