Business Competitiveness and Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Future Challenges

by Marco Arraya (Editor), João J. Ferreira (Editor)

Overview

This book presents seven internal dimensions that have a direct impact on an organization’s global competitiveness and sustainability: purpose, leadership, passion, people-centered, customer-centric, infrastructure, and viability.

An organization operates as a complex adaptive system that is impacted by external factors that make up its environment. These external factors, in turn, compel managers to make decisions and take deliberate actions that stimulate the organization's internal dimensions to enhance its competitiveness. Therefore, a competitive organization achieves a sustained level of productivity that leads to growth and the attainment of its objectives, resulting in increased income and well-being. Chapters in this book provide readers with a framework that demonstrates how these dimensions can be studied and analyzed individually, as well as how cultivating a coherent, mutually reinforcing system can enhance an organization's competitive advantage. This book also includes illustrative case studies and proposes an instrument to measure an organization's competitiveness.

Providing a strategic framework for enhancing competitiveness in VUCA environments, this book will interest scholars and students in strategic management, competitiveness, innovation, and international business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032696003
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/29/2024
Series:	Innovation and Technology Horizons
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marco Arraya is an Assistant Professor at Universidade Europeia (Lisboa), Portugal. He holds a PhD in Strategic Management from Universidade Aberta, Portugal. Marco has co-edited several books and published in international journals, and his research interests include competitiveness, dynamic capabilities, strategic management, and organizational change. He has much experience in competitive industries as CEO.

João J. Ferreira is a Full Professor of Management at the University of Beira Interior (UBI), Portugal, and an affiliated member of the UBI Research Unit in Business Sciences (NECE). He has edited and co-edited several books on strategy and entrepreneurship and published over 200 papers in premier international journals. His main research interests include strategy, competitiveness, and entrepreneurship.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

More about the Editors

More about the Contributors

Introduction

Marco Arraya and João J. Ferreira

1. Productivity and competitiveness in the digital era: more inseparable and interdependent

Carlos A. P. F. Silva and Tawfiq Rkibi

2. Competitive Advantage: Why and how to evaluate. Its importance in competitiveness

Helen E. Salavou

3. Organizational Purpose. Its importance in competitiveness.

José António Porfírio, Carlos Rey Peña and Ricardo Rodrigues

4. Is Inclusive leadership a renewed hope for the building of people-centric organizations?

Daniel Roque Gomes and Neuza Ribeiro

5. Work passion and innovative behaviours: the anchor for success

Clara Margaça, Elisabeth Figueiredo and José Carlos Sánchez García

6. Customer-centric organization: Creating customer value for competitive advantage

Mika Yrjölä and Harri Hokkanen

7. Core Infrastructure: The company’s backbone and its importance in business competitiveness

Marco Arraya

8. Supporting business viability and competitiveness through sustainability-based adaptation

Rodolfo Damiano, Marcantonio Ruisi and Federico Cosenz

9. Internationalization and Digitalization Competitive Strategies in high-Technology companies: Multiple Case Studies

Marco Figueiredo and João J. Ferreira

10. Firm competitiveness fit stress-test

Marco Arraya and João J. Ferreira

11. Current and future challenges for organizations: forewarned is forearmed!

André de Waal and Julie Linthorst

Editorial Reviews

"Business Competitiveness and Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Future Challenges" brilliantly navigates the complexities of organizational success in a dynamic environment. Through contemporary research and illustrative case studies, this insightful book by Marco Arraya and João Ferreira offers invaluable tools for scholars, students, and practitioners to analyze and enhance organizational performance. A must-read for those seeking to master strategic management and innovation in today’s VUCA world.”

Hussain Rammal, The University of Adelaide, Australia

“The authors outline a multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder set of perspectives on the key determinants and drivers of competitiveness and sustainability. In so doing, they aim to unlock the “black box” of sustainable competitive advantage and highlight the key enablers of it – their figure on organization competitiveness dimensions show-cases and amplifies those. To the extent that this rubric of organizational and managerial excellence is reflected in the routines and practices of a for-profit or a not-for-profit organization, it can serve as a valid predictor of success in building and maintaining sustainable competitive advantage. This work should be of interest to academics, policy makers and practitioners alike.”

Elias G. Carayannis, PhD, MBA, MScEE, CPMMA | Professor of Science, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship | Director, European Union Research Center | School of Business, George Washington University: Washington, DC, USA

“Business Competitiveness and Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Future Challenges is a great example of the power of interdisciplinary collaboration and intellectual curiosity. The two editors have assembled an excellent group of scholars who bring diverse expertise and perspectives to understand the complex and multifaceted topic of organizational competitiveness as well as sustainability. This volume is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and students seeking a deeper understanding of this critical subject.”

Wendy D. Chen, Ph.D., Senior Associate Editor, Management Decision and Assistant Professor of Texas Tech University, USA

“Focusing on seven critical dimension, including leadership, people and infrastructure, this book presents state of the art research on business competitiveness and sustainability. Forfeiting easy answers, the chapters in this book address the complexity of business and business environment. It pairs academic rigour with highly insightful practical expertise. Logically structured and concisely  written, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in what makes business competitive and sustainable in the challenging times that we live in.”

Role Rutten, Associate Professor in the department of Organization Studies, Tilburg University, Netherlands

"One of the standout features of this book is its focus on seven internal dimensions that directly impact an organization’s global competitiveness: purpose, leadership, passion, people-centeredness, customer-centricity, infrastructure, and viability. The editors have successfully articulated how these dimensions can be individually studied and collectively leveraged to create a coherent and competitive organization.

Each chapter delves deeply into these dimensions, providing a strategic framework that not only highlights their importance but also demonstrates how they interconnect to form a robust system for sustaining competitive advantage. The book also introduces an innovative instrument for measuring an organization's competitiveness, making it a valuable resource for both scholars and practitioners."

René Pellissier, CHEC Higher Education Leadership Academy (HELA), South Africa

From the Publisher