Business: Theory and Practice

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) declared by organisations can be understood as a specific signal sent to stakeholders. However, social responsibility can vary from its complete absence to symbolic or substantive CSR. There is still a lack of knowledge on how employee feedback, manifesting itself by organisational commitment or organisational cynicism, varies depending on the nature of CSR and employee seniority. Therefore, this exploratory study examines how organisational cynicism and organisational commitment manifest themselves in organisations in different situations with regard to CSR. The study was conducted in Lithuania, surveying 981 employees from public and private sector enterprises. Organisations are divided into three groups showing the corresponding level of social responsibility: substantive, symbolic and not CSR. Organisational commitment was tested using two different instruments: Organisational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) by Mowday et al. (1979) and an instrument created by Allen and Meyer (1990). Organisational commitment (as in the cases of affective, continuance and normative commitment) was the strongest in the substantive CSR group; and the weakest, in the not CSR group. Employee cynicism showed the opposite result. The same consistency was observed separately in the public and private sectors, with stronger commitment and weaker cynicism found in the public sector. Organisational commitment and cynicism demonstrated by employees emerge as reactions to corporate social responsibility and as a kind of feedback signal sent to persons responsible for organisational management. The results are discussed considering the signalling theory, and their implications for practice are highlighted.

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of knowledge integration capability on the relationship between business ties, political ties, and entrepreneurial creativity on competitive advantage. We present the first model that links the ability to integrate knowledge, network ties, and entrepreneurial creativity with the background of MSMEs in Indonesia. This study’s data collection method is a questionnaire survey given to Indonesian MSME entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, 358 questionnaires have been qualified for further processing as part of the random sampling approach used in this study’s sample collection. Additionally, the survey data were acquired through the use of SmartPLS, and the study’s findings indicate that business ties, political ties, and entrepreneurial creativity all favorably impact competitive advantage. Knowledge integration capability reinforces the influence of business ties and entrepreneurial creativity on competitive advantage. But knowledge integration capability is unable to counteract the impact of political ties on competitive advantage. The results complement the literature related to the use of knowledge resources in achieving competitive advantage. Considering the important role of knowledge integration capability in the escalation of competitive advantage in corporations, MSME entrepreneurs are strongly advised to consider the available resource of knowledge. To preserve the competitive advantage, knowledge should be continuously expanded.