Does the need for sustainable development hinder businesses’ ability to create value? Is firm’s competitiveness negatively affected by considering that need? After quickly reviewing the main literature contributions on the relationship between business and society, and drawing from resource-based view of the firm and sustainable development literature, this paper presents a proposal for a dynam...

The proponents of the resource-based view (RBV) have long argued that a firm gains sustainable competitive advantage from those resources and capabilities it controls and which are valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and not substitutable. So, does information technology (IT) outsourcing strip companies of any competitive advantage that is attributed to IT? It has been said that information s...

This study aims to empirically test the relationships among the adoption of sustainability practices, business performance and competitive advantage in Caribbean manufacturing firms. Seven dimensions of sustainable manufacturing practices are conceptualized and tested against measures of business performance and competitive advantage. Three hypothesized relationships are tested using the partia...

There is a considerable amount of controversy about the model(s) of comparative advantage and its applicability to international business, in particular as a guide to the success of nations and/or firms in international markets. This perception (or understanding) of inapplicability of the model(s) of comparative advantage has lead international business experts to develop new models, or what ma...

This paper identifies the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) as a tool in eco-design that can be used to identify customer desires, needs and requirements and to evaluate and characterise them into different categories, thereby building up an overall picture of customer value. It further argues that QFD can be more effective to the extent that it incorporates green engineering objectives, becaus...