Prior research has produced ample evidence showing that agility affects performance outcomes; however, we know little about the link between agility and collaborative processes toward environmental sustainability. This study examines the relationship between operational agility and environmental collaboration, mediated by individual creativity and flexible work arrangements. Using multilevel analysis of data obtained from 249 managers of 66 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Turkey, we find that operational agility through individual creativity and flexible work arrangements leads to greater environmental collaboration. We contribute to the streams of literature on agility, international management, and environmental sustainability by elucidating that operational agility of emerging market MNEs tends to reduce environmental impacts and that individual creativity and flexible work arrangements facilitate environmental collaboration to attain environmental success.

Revisiting stakeholder theory as a potential theory of the firm giving rise to expectations about organizing, we analyze when and under what circumstances entrepreneurially oriented firms increase their environmental collaboration with suppliers. Specifically, we investigate the association between entrepreneurial orientation and environmental collaboration with suppliers by accounting for the degree of employees' work engagement and market environment complexity as stakeholder-oriented moderators of this relationship. We test our hypotheses using multi-level analyses on 249 managers nested in 66 multinational companies (MNCs) in Turkey. We find that entrepreneurial orientation positively impacts environmental collaboration with suppliers. A high level of work engagement (as an organizing principle favouring a stakeholder focus) and a low level of market environment complexity (as an organizing principle favouring the customer as an instrumental stakeholder) moderate this linkage. We enrich the debate on entrepreneurial orientation, strategy, and environmental sustainability by providing logic rooted in stakeholder theory of the conditions under which MNCs' entrepreneurial orientation in emerging markets prioritizes and privileges environmental collaboration with suppliers.

This study proposes new moderators acting on well-established antecedents of absorptive capacity. We treat separately the two dimensions of potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity. We first examine the moderating effect of market sensing on the relationship between coordination capability and potential absorptive capacity. Then, we assess the moderating effect of market responsiveness on the links between organizational systems and socialization processes and realized absorptive capacity. We draw on multilevel analysis with data from 205 managers from the banking sector in Turkey to test our hypothesized relationships. Our contribution reveals interesting insights on the contingent effects of market sensing and responsiveness for the emergence of absorptive capacity. Market sensing moderates the relationship between coordination capability and potential absorptive capacity, while market responsiveness moderates the relationships between organizational systems and socialization processes and realized absorptive capacity. The findings provide important implications for theory and practice on developing potential and realized absorptive capacity.

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Purpose The human element, especially its multilevel manifestation, has been overlooked in research investigating the antecedents of firm supply chain agility (FSCA). The purpose of this paper is to explore how a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation affect FSCA through individual capabilities and actions within the boundary conditions of individual identification with the firm and organizational work climate. Design/methodology/approach Following a multilevel approach and drawing on a cross-disciplinary reading of the literature, the authors analyze drivers and enablers of FSCA and advance a framework explaining the emergence of FSCA within the boundary conditions of transformational leadership, individual identification and organizational work climate. Findings The authors advance that relevant individual capabilities and intraorganizational actions underlie FSCA in the firms’ pursuit of realizing their strategic orientations as increased agile capacities. The effectiveness of individual capabilities and actions for the emergence of FSCA is contingent upon the extent to which managers identify themselves with their firm, transformational leadership and the nature of organizational work climate. Originality/value The original contribution of the paper is to explain the interplay between the multilayered attitudinal, behavioral and structural enablers of FSCA and incorporate the human element into the research on the antecedents of FSCA.