The Impact of Competitors–Firm Power Divergence on Chinese SMES’ Environmental and Financial Performance

Zhi Tang () and Jintong Tang ()
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Zhi Tang: Rochester Institute of Technology
Jintong Tang: Saint Louis University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2016, vol. 136, issue 1, No 11, 147-165

Abstract: Abstract Competitor pressure is one of the major reasons that a SME engages in environmentally friendly or damaging activities. Extant research has argued that environmental strengths and concerns have mirror opposite relationships with stakeholder antecedents as well as with performance outcomes. We suggest this argument does not reflect the reality. Building on stakeholder management and Red Queen theories, we hypothesize that environmental strengths and concerns have differential relationships with competitors–firm power exchange and financial performance for Chinese SMEs. Results of ten interviews, a pretest, and a large-scale field study indicate that competitors–firm power divergence has a positive relationship with environmental strengths, yet the link between this divergence and environmental concerns does not exist. Further, environmental strengths mediate the relationship between competitors–firm power divergence and financial performance of Chinese SMEs.

Keywords: Environmental strengths and concerns; Red Queen; Competitor; SME; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2518-8

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