A Process Model of Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Multinational Enterprises: An Empirical Case Study

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are the leading entities in the process of global economic integration, whose international expansion would be regulated and constrained by environmental issues. Drawing on theories of corporate social responsibility, corporate environmental behavior and legitimacy, this paper establishes a grounded process model that has both theoretical and practical significance. The model reveals that development of sustainable competitive advantage of MNEs is a gradual process that is dependent on the corporate environmental behavior and the legitimation of their behaviors. Via a real in-depth case study of Badische Anilin-Soda-Fabrik (BASF), one of the largest chemical companies in the world, the application and effectiveness of the proposed process model are demonstrated. Also, implications of this model and future directions for both research and practice are indicated.

Keywords:

multinational enterprises (MNEs), corporate social responsibility, corporate environmental behavior, corporate legitimacy, sustainable development

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Shan, M., You, J., Wang, Y., & Liu, H. (2015). A Process Model of Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Multinational Enterprises: An Empirical Case Study. Problemy Ekorozwoju, 10(1), 67–78. Retrieved from https://ph.pollub.pl/index.php/preko/article/view/4929

A Process Model of Building Sustainable Competitive Advantage for Multinational Enterprises: An Empirical Case Study

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