Essays in business strategy, sustainability and innovation

Abstract

The topic of the present Ph.D. thesis is the investigation of the importance of corporate sustainability and innovation strategies adopted by modern companies and in particular by a large sample of US-listed companies. Specifically, the thesis consists of three independent essays. The first one focuses on a critical discussion of key areas of academic research on corporate sustainability and its theoretical implications on business prosperity. The second essay, which provides empirical evidence on the matter, examines and evaluates the impact of different aspects of innovation on corporate sustainability in quantitative terms; the third one investigates whether corporate sustainable performance is related to business longevity in the market. The first essay, which is presented in Chapter 2, examines the literature on corporate sustainability and analyzes its evolution over time as part of the business strategy of modern companies as well as its implications. In particular, the first essay is based on a large number of valid secondary studies to highlight the similarities and differences of the research in the field, but mainly to identify the limitations of the existing research efforts. The Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) concept as well as the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles are clarified through the exploration of the historical evolution of the corporate sustainability concept. Moreover, the thesis analyzes the ESG criteria and how their integration on firms’ strategies can create a competitive advantage. The second essay, which is presented in Chapter 3, explores the relationship between corporate sustainability and innovation. In order to attain this goal, various aspects of innovation as well as the ESG as a risk mitigation tool, are conceptualized and checked. For this empirical research, a unique micro-level panel dataset consisting of 1.048 firms scattered across the USA, over the period 2007-2016, has been constructed. The findings, based on several advanced statistical tests and econometric models, are robust and reveal that the key mechanism for achieving corporate sustainability is through an innovation channel. The third essay, which is presented in Chapter 4, explores the relationship between corporate sustainable performance and firms’ longevity in the market. This empirical analysis uses a set of data from 1.585 USA companies, over the period 2007-2016. Based on survival analysis estimations, the findings suggest that companies with higher sustainable performance are more likely to remain listed on the stock market for longer periods and therefore serve better their investors. Finally, Chapter 5, based on the findings derived from the theoretical investigation in Chapter 2 and the quantitative research in Chapters 3 and 4, presents and discusses the main conclusions on business strategies, sustainability and innovation. It also describes the fundamental contributions of the present thesis and offers suggestions for future research on corporate sustainability.