Sustainability Outcomes in SMEs: A Configurational View of the Interplay of Strategic Orientations and Environmental Conditions

Abstract

Despite concerted scholarly and managerial interests in sustainability, integrating the principle of sustainable development in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains an elusive goal. This article examines the complex interdependent nature of three strategic orientations (entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and sustainability orientation) and two external environmental conditions (competitive intensity and institutional support) and how they may jointly affect SME's financial, social, and environmental goals (triple bottom line or TBL)—in a nonlinear, configurational way. In accordance with this broad objective, the authors utilize fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 289 SMEs operating in a developing economy. This approach enables nuanced detection of the various ways in which causal conditions (i.e., strategic orientations) and contextual conditions (i.e., external environmental factors) together can lead to the presence and absence of TBL. The analyses reveal complex causality between TBL and its antecedent conditions that cannot be explained solely by isolated net effects. Specifically, for each TBL dimension, two distinctive configurations are found to be consistently sufficient, thereby providing important theoretical and managerial implications.