Purpose

Corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) have emerged as an important topic today. At the same time, alliances and coopetition arrangements, as vehicles for inter-firm collaboration have been shown to support firm performance. Still, there has been a lack of research into how coopetition (collaboration with competing firms) in this area may support firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach

This study aims to untangle the relationship between coopetition arrangements including CRS and firm performance. The model permits garnering social performance, which is a key to CRS, and to move beyond the traditional view of the coopetition–firm–economic–performance relationship. This study is based on a survey and primary data from 215 firms in Australia. This study uses multiple indicators for the concepts. Relationships are estimated by multiple regression analyses.

Findings

Using survey data from 215 firms in Australia, the research findings confirm that coopetition in CRS can lead to improved firm performance, both in relation to financial and social performances. However, the association between coopetition in CRS and financial performance loses its significance when social performances is introduced as an additional control variable. Further, stakeholder attributes (i.e., effective power and legitimate stake) moderate the relationship between coopetition in CRS and firm financial performance. However, there was no evidence of moderation for the coopetition in CRS – firm social performance relationship.

Research limitations/implications

This study contributes to both coopetition and corporate social responsibility research. This study demonstrates that improved firm performance may be achieved through the promotion of CRS initiatives when a coopetitive approach is adopted, particularly where an understanding of stakeholder attributes is also evident. Firms do not need to shoulder corporate social responsibility alone. They need to find well-fitting partners. There are new ways to improve sustainability in terms of nature and human relationships.

Practical implications

Firms do not need to shoulder Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) alone. They need to find well-fitting partners.

Originality/value

This study provides very novel insights by having integrated the literature on coopetition, corporate social responsibility and sustainability resulting in a new conceptual framework that combines coopetition in CRS and performance. The new conceptual framework has both practical and research implications for coopetition in CRS and firm performance.

中文翻译：

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企业责任和可持续发展的合作：它会影响公司绩效吗？

目的

企业责任和可持续发展（CRS）已成为当今的一个重要话题。与此同时，联盟和合作安排作为公司间合作的工具已被证明可以支持公司绩效。尽管如此，仍然缺乏关于这一领域的合作（与竞争公司的合作）如何支持公司绩效的研究。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究旨在理清包括 CRS 在内的合作安排与公司绩效之间的关系。该模型允许获得社会绩效，这是 CRS 的关键，并超越了合作-企业-经济-绩效关系的传统观点。本研究基于对澳大利亚 215 家公司的调查和原始数据。本研究对这些概念使用了多个指标。通过多元回归分析来估计关系。

发现

利用澳大利亚 215 家公司的调查数据，研究结果证实，CRS 中的合作可以改善公司绩效，无论是在财务绩效还是社会绩效方面。然而，当引入社会绩效作为额外控制变量时，CRS 合作与财务绩效之间的关联就失去了意义。此外，利益相关者属性（即有效权力和合法股权）调节 CRS 合作与公司财务绩效之间的关系。然而，没有证据表明 CRS（企业社会绩效关系）中的合作具有调节作用。

研究局限性/影响

这项研究有助于合作竞争和企业社会责任研究。这项研究表明，当采用合作方法时，特别是在对利益相关者属性的理解也很明显的情况下，可以通过促进 CRS 举措来提高公司绩效。企业不需要单独承担企业社会责任。他们需要找到合适的合作伙伴。有新的方法可以提高自然和人类关系的可持续性。

实际影响

企业不需要单独承担企业社会责任（CSR）。他们需要找到合适的合作伙伴。

原创性/价值

这项研究通过整合有关合作、企业社会责任和可持续发展的文献，提供了非常新颖的见解，从而形成了一个将 CRS 合作与绩效相结合的新概念框架。新的概念框架对于 CRS 和企业绩效的合作具有实践和研究意义。