Purpose Wide differences in the focus and form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) exist among countries due to the different institutional embeddedness of CSR practices. The purpose of this paper is to seek to explain them within the framework provided by institutional theory by identifying important pressures driving CSR practices. Further, it intends to extend theory by proposing a conceptual model that relates institutional pressures, CSR practices, reputation and financial performance of corporates in a developing country like India. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon the extant literature on the constructs, the paper describes their evolution through decades and weaves relationship between them. Institutional theory provides the framework to develop hypotheses. Findings The model has its roots in Scott’s institutional theory – linking regulative, normative and cognitive pressures to CSR practices. Reputation mediates the relationship between CSR and financial performance. Practical implications The conceptual model can serve as a foundation for subsequent empirical research. An understanding of relationship between constructs in the model will help corporates to strategize CSR initiatives. At the organisational level, insight into managerial perceptions of CSR practices will help to identify the need for training, if there is a gap between what organisation intends and what managers perceive. Originality/value The authors have proposed for the first time an integrative model that will help to understand the antecedents as well as consequences of CSR practices in a developing country within a theoretical framework.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to trace the evolution of dynamic capabilities theory in the primal theories of economics and strategic management. Then a comprehensive research framework is proposed to grapple with the dynamics of the contemporary global markets, incorporating the quintessential elements of the theory, i.e. absorptive capability, innovation capability and adoptive capability. Design/methodology/approach The paper is conceptual in nature. It tries to review various economic systems of the world since 1770s till the present era. It also evaluates various theories of international business against dynamic capabilities theory and thus proposes various propositions for future empirical testing. Findings The study has delineated various theories tracing in them the roots of dynamic capabilities. Capitalism, communism and socialism is explained to reach the present state of world economy. Various theories such as the theory of creative destruction, transaction-cost approach, resource-based view and knowledge-based view of the firm have been elaborated to identify their features and shortcomings. Finally, the contemporary theory of dynamic capabilities has been elucidated to integrate the shortcomings of the previous theories. A research framework has also been proposed to overcome the recent criticism of the dynamic capabilities theory of having under-specified constructs. Originality/value Very few studies have elaborated various economic systems and theories to trace the evolution of dynamic capabilities theory. Thus, this study is original in nature and the proposed research model is also novel which induces further empirical evidence as proposed by the authors.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to conduct a literature review on knowledge transfer and international strategic alliances to propose a research framework based on the theory of dynamic capabilities. A qualitative and quantitative review has been conducted to find out the past research patterns, emerging trends, and research gaps. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative review of more than 300 articles identified by keyword search, reference, and citation search has resulted in 130 most relevant articles. Citation analysis is performed on these studies, their journals, and authors by leveraging the international platforms of SCImago Journal Ranking, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate. Findings The study enlists the highly cited studies, their journals, and authors with possible explanations for being highly cited. Criticisms of dynamic capabilities theory have been explained, and a research framework for the application of this theory in the context of international strategic alliances to fill the research gap has been proposed. Originality/value Currently, various bibliometric studies are growing in number. This study is not only a review study, but also proposes a research framework to fill the identified research gap.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship among knowledge transfer enablers, knowledge transfer process, absorptive capacity and innovation performance in the context of Indian international joint ventures (IJVs). These elements are woven with the thread of dynamic capabilities theory (DCT) into an integrated framework. Design/methodology/approach Data analysis is conducted on a quantitative survey of 196 IJVs with partial least squares structural equation modeling as the statistical technique. Findings Co-learning strategy, collaborative trust culture, information technology-based resources and systems and organizational structural design are found to be significant knowledge transfer enablers. Absorptive capacity has a complementary partial mediation effect on the positive relationship between knowledge transfer and innovation performance of Indian IJVs. Research limitations/implications The study has pioneered in explicating the criticality of IJV’s internal dynamics to cope with the global market dynamism in a much needed Indian context. Practitioners must focus on building dynamic capabilities in IJVs to make them sustainably competitive, as proposed and evaluated by this study. Further, IJV managers need to strategize their resources, routines and structure dynamically to foster knowledge transfer and innovativeness. Originality/value The comprehensive model on DCT offered by this study is rare to match in literature with a completely new context, which is the need of the hour.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to check the reliability and validity of a well-acknowledged scale developed by Pratibha A. Dabholkar (1996) in the context of Indian organized grocery retail and also to identify new aspects of service quality with respect to grocery retail from literature that have not been taken into account in earlier studies and to finally develop a new scale to measure service quality of organized retail grocery stores with consultation from several experts. Design/methodology/approach In order to achieve the objectives of the research, both descriptive and exploratory research designs have been employed such that a survey of 800 respondents was undertaken as part of descriptive research whereas exploratory research was conducted to add new dimensions to the existing service quality measurement model so as to develop a new comprehensive scale. Findings The results of the study suggest that all the five dimensions of Dabholkar’s model are not suitable to measure service quality in Indian organized grocery retail stores. Therefore, a new instrument with total four dimensions has been developed. Practical implications The study is of great importance for the retailers as it offers a more comprehensive and specific scale to measure service quality of organized grocery retail stores. Originality/value This research supports and makes contribution to the previous research on development of service quality measurement scales in Indian context.