IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i13p7527-d843665.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Study of the Relationship between Corporate Culture and Corporate Sustainable Performance: Evidence from Chinese SMEs

Author

Listed:
  • Siyuan Wang

    (Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Linglan Huang

    (Shenzhen Aerospace Industry Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 518048, China)

Abstract

Sustainable development is a significant issue facing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the literature of corporate sustainable development and the resource-based view, this study aims to examine how corporate flexibility and control culture influence sustainable performance by triggering innovation capabilities and investigate the moderating role of leadership style (i.e., transformational and transactional). The 186 matched questionnaire data from managers and employees in Chinese SMEs reveal that the flexibility and control culture are positively and negatively related to innovation capability, respectively, and that the latter mediates their influence on sustainable performance. Moreover, transformational leadership positively (negatively) moderates the relationship between flexibility (control) culture and innovation capability, while transactional leadership positively moderates the relationship between control culture and innovation capability. This study enriches the theoretical literature on corporate sustainable performance and provides management insights into how SMEs could survive and achieve sustained growth through corporate culture.

Suggested Citation

  • Siyuan Wang & Linglan Huang, 2022. "A Study of the Relationship between Corporate Culture and Corporate Sustainable Performance: Evidence from Chinese SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7527-:d:843665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7527/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/13/7527/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Griffiths, Andrew, 2010. "Corporate sustainability and organizational culture," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 357-366, October.
    2. Yao-Jen Fan & Shuo-Fang Liu & Ding-Bang Luh & Pei-Shan Teng, 2021. "Corporate Sustainability: Impact Factors on Organizational Innovation in the Industrial Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2014. "Managing Corporate Sustainability and CSR: A Conceptual Framework Combining Values, Strategies and Instruments Contributing to Sustainable Development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(5), pages 258-271, September.
    4. Robert E. Quinn & John Rohrbaugh, 1983. "A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 363-377, March.
    5. Philippe Aghion & Jean Tirole, 1994. "The Management of Innovation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 1185-1209.
    6. Yongan Zhang & Umair Khan & Seoyeon Lee & Madiha Salik, 2019. "The Influence of Management Innovation and Technological Innovation on Organization Performance. A Mediating Role of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-21, January.
    7. Rathore, Himanshu & Jakhar, Suresh Kumar & Bhattacharya, Arijit & Madhumitha, E., 2020. "Examining the mediating role of innovative capabilities in the interplay between lean processes and sustainable performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 497-508.
    8. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    9. William Q. Judge & Thomas J. Douglas, 1998. "Performance Implications of Incorporating Natural Environmental Issues into the Strategic Planning Process: An Empirical Assessment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 241-262, March.
    10. Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz & Ndubisi, Nelson Oly & Roman Pais Seles, Bruno Michel, 2020. "Sustainable development in Asian manufacturing SMEs: Progress and directions," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    11. Krajnc, Damjan & Glavič, Peter, 2005. "A model for integrated assessment of sustainable development," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 189-208.
    12. Assunta Di Vaio & Luisa Varriale, 2018. "Management Innovation for Environmental Sustainability in Seaports: Managerial Accounting Instruments and Training for Competitive Green Ports beyond the Regulations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-35, March.
    13. Herr, Paul M & Kardes, Frank R & Kim, John, 1991. "Effects of Word-of-Mouth and Product-Attribute Information on Persuasion: An Accessibility-Diagnosticity Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(4), pages 454-462, March.
    14. Rodrigo Lozano, 2013. "Are Companies Planning their Organisational Changes for Corporate Sustainability? An Analysis of Three Case Studies on Resistance to Change and their Strategies to Overcome it," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(5), pages 275-295, September.
    15. Sanjay Sharma & Irene Henriques, 2005. "Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 159-180, February.
    16. Tracy Artiach & Darren Lee & David Nelson & Julie Walker, 2010. "The determinants of corporate sustainability performance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(1), pages 31-51, March.
    17. Ehie, Ike C. & Olibe, Kingsley, 2010. "The effect of R&D investment on firm value: An examination of US manufacturing and service industries," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 127-135, November.
    18. Munshi Muhammad Abdul Kader Jilani & Luo Fan & Mohammad Tazul Islam & Md. Aftab Uddin, 2020. "The Influence of Knowledge Sharing on Sustainable Performance: A Moderated Mediation Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Said Yousef Dwikat & Darwina Arshad & Mohd Noor Mohd Shariff, 2023. "Effect of Competent Human Capital, Strategic Flexibility and Turbulent Environment on Sustainable Performance of SMEs in Manufacturing Industries in Palestine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-29, March.
    2. Zi Lin & Hai Gu & Kiran Zahara Gillani & Mochammad Fahlevi, 2024. "Impact of Green Work–Life Balance and Green Human Resource Management Practices on Corporate Sustainability Performance and Employee Retention: Mediation of Green Innovation and Organisational Culture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-26, August.
    3. Papen, Marie-Christin & Magalhaes, Katrin Marques & Tenbrock, Sebastian & Märkel, Christian, 2022. "Digitalisierungsanwendungen und Identifikation von Digitalisierungstrends im Mittelstand," WIK Discussion Papers 495, WIK Wissenschaftliches Institut für Infrastruktur und Kommunikationsdienste GmbH.
    4. Said Yousef Dwikat & Darwina Arshad & Mohd Noor Mohd Shariff, 2022. "The Influence of Systematic Strategic Planning and Strategic Business Innovation on the Sustainable Performance of Manufacturing SMEs: The Case of Palestine," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-26, October.
    5. VGR Chandran & Tariq Ahmed & Fedwa Jebli & Alexander Josiassen & Eva Lang, 2024. "Developing innovation capability in the hotel industry, who and what is important? A mixed methods approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 728-748, May.
    6. Galvão Meirinhos & António Cardoso & Maria Neves & Rui Silva & Reiville Rêgo, 2023. "Leadership Styles, Motivation, Communication and Reward Systems in Business Performance," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    7. Hongni Zhang & Xiangyi Xu, 2023. "Innovative Technology Method Based on Evolutionary Game Model of Enterprise Sustainable Development and CNN–GRU," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-17, February.
    8. Elisabeta-Emilia Halmaghi & Diana-Elena Ranf & Dorel Badea, 2023. "Interdisciplinary Exploration between Organizational Culture and Sustainable Development Management Applied to the Romanian Higher Education Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, July.
    9. Ibraheem Saleh Mokbel AlKoliby & Haim Hilman Abdullah & Norazah Mohd Suki, 2024. "Linking Knowledge Application, Digital Marketing, and Manufacturing SMEs’ Sustainable Performance: The Mediating Role of Innovation," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 6151-6177, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Witjes, Sjors & Vermeulen, Walter J.V. & Cramer, Jacqueline M., 2017. "Assessing Corporate Sustainability integration for corporate self-reflection," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 132-147.
    2. Christopher Durugbo & Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah, 2019. "Global sustainability under uncertainty: How do multinationals craft regulatory policies?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1500-1516, November.
    3. Mehrnaz Ashrafi & Gregory M. Magnan & Michelle Adams & Tony R. Walker, 2020. "Understanding the Conceptual Evolutionary Path and Theoretical Underpinnings of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Aisma Linda Kiesnere & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2019. "Sustainability Management in Practice: Organizational Change for Sustainability in Smaller Large-Sized Companies in Austria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-40, January.
    5. Ricky Y. K. Chan & Katherine H. Y. Ma, 2016. "Environmental Orientation of Exporting SMEs from an Emerging Economy: Its Antecedents and Consequences," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 597-632, October.
    6. Thaís Vieira Nunhes & Merce Bernardo & Otávio José de Oliveira, 2020. "Rethinking the Way of Doing Business: A Reframe of Management Structures for Developing Corporate Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-32, February.
    7. Sooksan Kantabutra, 2021. "Exploring Relationships among Sustainability Organizational Culture Components at a Leading Asian Industrial Conglomerate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-32, February.
    8. Khan, Rizwan Ullah & Richardson, Christopher & Salamzadeh, Yashar, 2022. "Spurring competitiveness, social and economic performance of family-owned SMEs through social entrepreneurship; a multi-analytical SEM & ANN perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    9. Aisma Linda Kiesnere & Rupert J. Baumgartner, 2019. "Sustainability management emergence and integration on different management levels in smaller large‐sized companies in Austria," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1607-1626, November.
    10. Günther, Finn & Möller, Klaus & Wenig, Philipp, 2015. "Erfolgswirkung einer proaktiven Unternehmensstrategie zur Integration natürlicher Ressourcen," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 69(1), pages 25-53.
    11. Nurlan Orazalin & Mady Baydauletov, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility strategy and corporate environmental and social performance: The moderating role of board gender diversity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1664-1676, July.
    12. Fiaz Ahmad Sulehri & Saba Sharif, 2022. "The Impact of Firm Sustainability on Firm Growth: Evidence from USA," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(2), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Jeremy Galbreath & Chia‐Yang Chang & Daniel Tisch, 2023. "The impact of a proactive environmental strategy on environmentally sustainable practices in service firms: The moderating effect of information use value," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5420-5434, December.
    14. Martínez-Caro, Eva & Cegarra-Navarro, Juan Gabriel & Alfonso-Ruiz, Francisco Javier, 2020. "Digital technologies and firm performance: The role of digital organisational culture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    15. Azeem, Muhammad & Ahmed, Munir & Haider, Sajid & Sajjad, Muhammad, 2021. "Expanding competitive advantage through organizational culture, knowledge sharing and organizational innovation," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Nurlan Orazalin, 2020. "Do board sustainability committees contribute to corporate environmental and social performance? The mediating role of corporate social responsibility strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 140-153, January.
    17. Mert Gürlek & Muharrem Tuna, 2018. "Reinforcing competitive advantage through green organizational culture and green innovation," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(7-8), pages 467-491, June.
    18. Dewan Muktadir‐Al‐Mukit & Firoz Haroon Bhaiyat, 2024. "Impact of corporate governance diversity on carbon emission under environmental policy via the mandatory nonfinancial reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1397-1417, February.
    19. Cegarra-Navarro, Juan-Gabriel & Soto-Acosta, Pedro & Wensley, Anthony K.P., 2016. "Structured knowledge processes and firm performance: The role of organizational agility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1544-1549.
    20. Shaik, Aqueeb Sohail & Nazrul, Asif & Alshibani, Safiya Mukhtar & Agarwal, Vaishali & Papa, Armando, 2024. "Environmental and economical sustainability and stakeholder satisfaction in SMEs. Critical technological success factors of big data analytics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:13:p:7527-:d:843665. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.