The role of organizational capabilities in achieving superior sustainability performance

Executives and scholars alike strongly emphasize the increasing need to adequately respond to the economic needs of customers while simultaneously considering human welfare and ecological constraints. This study contributes to the ongoing debate on the triple bottom line by disclosing a compilation of organizational capabilities (strategic flexibility, value chain flexibility, and customer integration) that supports firms in achieving superior sustainability performance. Using survey data of chemical firms in Germany, structural equation modeling eventually confirms the mediating role of value chain flexibility and customer integration in the strategic flexibility-sustainability performance relationship. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.