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

Siyuan Wang and Linglan Huang
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Siyuan Wang: Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Linglan Huang: Shenzhen Aerospace Industry Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 518048, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 13, 1-22

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.

Keywords: flexibility culture; control culture; leadership style; innovation capability; sustainable performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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