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Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to frame the development and directions of business sustainability efforts.


Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was undertaken with respect to a convenience sample of reputable companies in Norway, which have implemented significant business sustainability efforts within their organisations, their business networks, the marketplace and in the society, beyond the level of mere compliance.


Findings
Different directions are associated with the development of corporate efforts in connection with business sustainability. Business sustainability efforts are not static, but dynamic and based upon continuous flexibility to changes and adaptations over time.


Research Limitations/implications
The current study highlights the need for further research into the development and directions of corporate efforts in connection with business sustainability in the marketplace and society. A key suggestion for further research is to further explore the existence of other directions.


Practical Implications
The directions reported, provide a framework to assess the development or the status of companies' business sustainability efforts in the marketplace and society. Corporate efforts in connection with business sustainability develop over time as experiences are gained and personal impressions move the identified directions forward.


Originality/value
This study contributes to seven interconnected directions of corporate efforts in connection with business sustainability that are both relevant and potentially fruitful to both scholars and practitioners.

Purpose"Business sustainability" refers to the total effort of a company – including its demand and supply chain networks – to reduce the impact on the Earth's life‐ and eco‐systems. The objective of this paper is to describe a business sustainability model based upon a case study of a European manufacturer.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was applied describing the efforts of business sustainability in the demand and supply chain networks of a Norwegian office chair producer. It is based upon a series of semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with top executives of the company as well as observations and content analyses of internal and external documents about the company's efforts of business sustainability.FindingsThe case study shows that business sustainability is not about doing just one thing, but that a multitude of simultaneous efforts (e.g. actors, resources and activities) should be in place. Furthermore, business sustainability is not only about a company's own business operations, but its whole demand and supply chain networks which need to be included and taken into consideration.Research limitations/implicationsThe case study in focus is limited to just one company's effort of business sustainability and its demand and supply chain networks. It provides a business sustainability model that offers opportunities for further research.Practical implicationsFocusing on the corporate impact of the natural environment can be highly profitable. Business sustainability and by extension the carbon footprint of demand and supply chain networks is becoming a criterion in the decision‐making process of customers across industries. Business sustainability is a concern to everybody in society as the indicatives of climate change and global warming become more evident and troublesome. No one can have missed the fact that the weather is becoming more extreme, causing damage around the globe.Originality/valueThe authors argue that research into business sustainability needs at this stage of development to be inductive rather than deductive – it may be an irreversible mistake to try to re‐package existing theory into business sustainability, as climate change prediction and the poor condition of the Earth have not been fully understood or comprised in previous theory.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a corporate effort to implement a sustainable business model.Design/methodology/approachA Norwegian producer of office chairs, selling products across Europe, is examined in this study. Information has been collected from semi‐structured interviews with top‐level management, as well as available internal and external documentation.FindingsThe company's efforts towards a more sustainable business model can broadly be divided into factors within the company and factors outside the company. The case study demonstrates how the carbon footprint on the Earth can be reduced by focusing and influencing factors outside the company's own production facilities.Research limitations/implicationsIn a highly competitive market, the case study demonstrates that focusing on the corporate impact of the natural environment can be highly profitable.Practical implicationsThe process towards sustainable business operations must be anchored and supported by the top‐level management and owners of the company, and it has to be a long‐term commitment.Originality/valueThe principal contribution from the presented case study is how a more sustainable business model can be achieved even when the majority major part of the carbon footprint on the Earth is generated outside the company's production facilities. The case study illustrates how already known technologies are used to create a sustainable and profitable business.

PurposeSeen from the seller's point of view, this study examines economic and non-economic satisfaction as distinct conceptual variables, and tests how the constructs relate to each other and to the business transactional cost variables of formalisation, specific investments and dependence.Design/methodology/approachData was collected from 213 key informants from Norwegian companies involved in business-to-business marketing. Structural equation modelling was used to test the posited hypotheses.FindingsThe findings show that sellers' economic satisfaction exerts a positive influence on non-economic satisfaction and on formalisation, while its posited influence on specific investments was not found to be significant. Formalisation was, however, not significantly influenced by seller non-economic satisfaction. Specific investment was positively influenced by seller non-economic satisfaction. The influence of formalisation on specific investments and dependence was significant. Specific investments were also found to be positively influenced by dependence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reveals the importance of assessing both economic and non-economic satisfaction in trying to understand sellers' behaviour in business-to-business markets.Practical implicationsThe findings show the need for managers to ensure economic satisfaction, as its affects non-economic satisfaction.Originality/valueThis study contributes to a better understanding of satisfaction in business-to-business exchange relationships and its relationship with transactional cost constructs based on a seller's perspective.

Purpose
This study explores a seller's perspective in business relationships to validate whether the findings reported in previous studies based on buyer business relationships apply to seller business relationships. The purpose of this study is to test whether satisfaction functions as a connector between positive antecedents (trust and commitment) and negative postcedents (opportunism and conflict) in a business-to-business (B2B) relationship, based on a seller perspective.


Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive research design was applied and data was collected from Norwegian companies from the database of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator. Respondents (Sales or Marketing Managers/Directors or Key Account Managers) were asked to identify one main business customer with whom they had interacted in the past year. A total of 213 responses could be used for data analysis. In addition, the measurement and structural models were assessed.


Findings
Trust was established as a positive alter ego of opportunism and opportunism as a negative alter ego of trust. The commitment was also determined to be a positive alter ego of conflict, with conflict being a negative alter ego of commitment. Furthermore, it was proven that alter egos are not opposites, but facets of antecedents and postcedents in relation to a connector, satisfaction.


Research limitations/implications
The tested model endorses the hypothesised relationships between trust, commitment, satisfaction, opportunism and conflict in Norwegian B2B relationships. Satisfaction is linked to its two antecedents and its outcomes and the hypothesised relationship between opportunism and conflict is also endorsed from a seller's perspective in B2B relationships.


Practical implications
The findings can assist the B2B industry to understand how trust and commitment foster satisfaction, how satisfaction influences opportunism and conflict, and how opportunism relates to conflict in a seller-business relationship.


Originality/value
No previous study has focussed on relationship marketing in B2B relationships from a seller's perspective to establish whether satisfaction functions as a connector between trust and commitment and opportunism and conflict.

Purpose
This paper aims to test trust and commitment as mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction in seller business relationships in contrast to previous studies on buyer business relationships.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on a cross-industry sample of Norwegian companies with sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers. Key informants were selected to participate who adhered to specific criteria, such as their designations should be sales or marketing managers/directors or key account managers.


Findings
Trust and commitment mediate between economic and non-economic satisfaction in seller business relationships in line with what has been previously tested and retested across contexts and through time in buyer business relationships.


Research limitations/implications
This study helps in establishing an extended foundation to assess the structural properties between economic and non-economic satisfaction, as well as trust and commitment, in business relationships based on seller and or buyer perspectives.


Practical implications
The tested seller business relationship research model provides a corporate foundation for assessing the seller perspective of business relationships. It also provides a corporate foundation for combining the seller perspective with that of the customer perspective.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, it is the first study based on seller business relationships that validates the research model reported in multiple previous studies based on buyer business relationships.

Purpose
This study aims to examine the role of salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in business-to-business (B2B) settings of services firms. This conceptual logic reported in meta-analytical works, that salespeople's skills relate directly to their sales performance (SP), is questioned.


Design/methodology/approach
his research relies on existing theory and previous studies on SP drivers and SP measures. The literature identifies a set of common denominators on the role of salespeople's skills regarding their SP, all of which are tested in this study. Based on a deductive approach and questionnaire survey, 732 service firms in Norway were targeted. A total of 389 questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 53.1%.


Findings
A total of 10 out of 12 hypothesized relationships in the research model dealing with the relationship between SP drivers and SP turn out to be non-significant. The hypothesized relationship in the research model between relative and absolute SP is also supported.


Research limitations/implications
The results reported in this study, based on a large sample of service firms, empirically confirm that the direct effect is generally overestimated. Empirical evidence is provided that sheds additional light on the role of salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms.


Practical implications
This study offers meaningful and relevant insights into the monitoring of SP drivers to practitioners in B2B sales settings of services firms. Salespeople need to learn about gathering knowledge in training programs about each customer and their specific situation. Firms should strive to recruit salespeople who possess the appropriate skills, taking into consideration their customers and specific situations related to them, such as experiences from competitors. Salespeople may be organized around similar customers and similar customer situations, rather than geographical assignments.


Originality/value
Overall, this research contributes insights into the role played by salespeople's skills in relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms. In particular, the research contributes additional insights into the non-existent role of interpersonal presentation and communication skills, adaptiveness of sales approach and sales behavior skills and product/technology-related knowledge skills in salespeople's relative and absolute SP in B2B settings of services firms.

Purpose
This study aims to validate a research model testing trust and commitment as mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction in sales manager business to business (B2B) relationships.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on a broad range of 242 small-, medium- and large-sized Spanish companies, the data analysis used structural equation modeling by means of the SPSS/AMOS 26.0 software.


Findings
The findings confirm that trust and commitment serve as mediators between economic and non-economic satisfaction in business channel relationships, when adopting a sales perspective.


Practical implications
This study provides managerial support and guidance for assessing satisfaction, trust and commitment from a sales manager perspective in business channel relationships, to create and maintain long-term exchange relationships, with mutual benefits extending to other partners.


Originality/value
The findings shed light on the confusion regarding the nomological framework in models related to the quality of B2B relationships, thus confirming the mediating role of trust and commitment between economic and non-economic satisfaction in business channel relationships, following a sales perspective and considering the dual nature of satisfaction, distinguishing between economic and non-economic satisfaction.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the relationship between objective and subjective sales performance and salespeople's economic and non-economic satisfaction in a sequential logic model.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on a questionnaire survey using a deductive approach. A total of 315 companies were ultimately selected for participation in the study, to represent a range of companies from different industries and company sizes in the product-oriented business sector of Norway. A total of 236 questionnaires were returned, generating a response rate of 74.9%.


Findings
The sequential logic of objective and subjective sales performance, in connection with salespeople's economic and non-economic satisfaction, reveals an underlying structure that can link existing theory and previous studies on sales performance and salesperson satisfaction in business-to-business (B2B) settings.


Research limitations/implications
The results reported applying only to a B2B setting, to test whether the sequential logic model and mediating effects still hold in such setting. This study is also limited to product-oriented companies in Norway, which offers the opportunity for a future study to verify whether the refined research model also applies to service-oriented companies.


Practical implications
The results indicate that the constructs of objective and subjective sales performance and salespeoplés economic and non-economic satisfaction are intertwined in a B2B setting. Specifically, these constructs are related to one another sequentially.


Originality/value
Contributes to structuring in a B2B setting, the relationships between objective and subjective sales performance on the one hand and salespeoplés economic and non-economic satisfaction on the other. It also highlights two mediating effects, namely, subjective sales performance mediates the relationship effect between objective sales performance and salespeoplés economic satisfaction and salespeople economic's satisfaction mediates the relationship effect between subjective sales performance and salespeople's non-economic satisfaction.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare the similarities and differences relating to sustainability initiatives between health-care organizations. The aim is to provide a framework of factors and their determinants to enable a profiling of organizational sustainability initiatives.


Design/methodology/approach
Based on an inductive approach, judgmental sampling was applied to select relevant health-care organizations. Informants were identified according to their knowledge of their organizations' sustainability initiatives.


Findings
Several factors and their determinants for characterizing differences and similarities were found. The results also reveal that organizational sustainability initiatives are either value-driven or business-driven.


Research limitations/implications
The reported framework of factors and their determinants serves the purpose of profiling organizational sustainability initiatives. Opportunities for further research are provided.


Practical implications
This paper provides managerial guidance for characterizing the differences and similarities with respect to organizational sustainability initiatives in relation to other organizations.


Originality/value
This study establishes a framework for characterizing organizational sustainability initiatives. It also contributes to reveal whether organizational sustainability initiatives are value – or business-driven and considers intrinsic-oriented differences and extrinsic-oriented similarities.

Purpose
This paper aims to examine the effect of social disruption on the use of technologies for digitizing business-to-business (B2B) processes. The aim is to assess how digitalization technologies (DT) may impact corporate performance (CP) in B2B settings.

Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is based on a questionnaire survey in Norway, and a deductive research design. A total of 216 usable questionnaires out of 356 were returned, generating a response rate of 60.6%.

Findings
This study shows that there is an effect of social disruption on DT (such as digital communication tools, social media and customer relationship management systems) in B2B settings that may impact CP.

Research limitations/implications
This study indicates that the use of technologies to digitize B2B processes may enhance CP when social disruption occurs.

Practical implications
This study offers insights to companies that need help in adapting their business processes to the changing social and technological environment. This study also highlights the importance of digitalization for business survival in the marketplace and society.

Originality/value
This study sheds light on the effect of social disruption on DT and provides opportunities for managing CP.

Purpose
This study aims to propose a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers' sales performance in services firms.


Design/methodology/approach
A descriptive research design was applied and data was gathered from 389 respondents across industries and different-sized services firms in Norway using a self-administered questionnaire.


Findings
Results show that the proposed six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators can be applied to manage seller–customer relationships in a business-to-business environment.


Research limitations/implications
A six-dimensional framework of organisational and environmental indicators is tested successfully in services firms.


Practical implications
Increasingly, services firms will need to work closely with business-to-business sellers to proactively adapt to market changes through a co-creation approach to build long-term seller–customer relationships.


Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, no previous study has focused on relationship marketing in business-to-business relationships that proposes a conceptual framework based on organisational and environmental indicators of business-to-business sellers' sales performance in services firms.

Purpose
This study aims to explore the direct and indirect effects of sales opportunism and sales conflict as well as of non-economic and economic satisfaction in business-to-business (B2B) sales relationships. This understanding offers B2B buyers enhanced knowledge of sales business expectations towards sustainable business relationships in the future.


Design/methodology/approach
Through self-administered questionnaires, data were obtained from 237 sales or marketing managers/directors of small- and medium-sized companies across industries in Spain, who were randomly contacted via LinkedIn. The multivariate analysis of measurement and structural models was based on IBM SPSS Amos 27.


Findings
The study confirms that sales opportunism positively affects sales conflict. Moreover, sales opportunism is negatively associated with non-economic sales satisfaction, whereas non-economic sales satisfaction is positively associated with economic sales satisfaction. Consequently, if all associates are pleased with the relationship and the gains it can provide, a long-standing orientation can be achieved.


Research limitations/implications
The study expands existing theory on seller–buyer relationships in a B2B context. It contextualises direct and indirect relationships between two antecedents (sales opportunism and sales conflict) and two postcedents (economic sales satisfaction and non-economic sales satisfaction) in sales business–buyer settings.


Practical implications
The study guides buyers in B2B relationships towards an improved understanding of how sales businesses perceive opportunism and conflict (as negative precursors) to impact non-economic satisfaction and how it can influence economic satisfaction.


Originality/value
Most studies explore B2B relationship building from the perspective of the buyer, thereby creating a shortfall in developing an understanding of all partner expectations in B2B relational intent. Moreover, the measurement of satisfaction as a multidimensional construct secured the integration of non-economic satisfaction and economic satisfaction within a single model allowing the constructs measured in this study to be holistically assessed.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to validate or refute the previous empirical findings of a TBL dominant logic for business sustainability and to expand the TBL dominant logic for business sustainability with additional dimensions and items. The study aims to provide bottom-up-based multi-dimensional framework in relation to the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development.


Design/methodology/approach
Key corporate informants in top Spanish companies were requested to participate in the study. A total of 89 usable questionnaires were returned, generating an initial response rate of 42.4%.


Findings
A framework for a TBL-dominant logic in the context of business sustainability has been empirically tested successfully across contexts and through time, thus providing substantiation for universal applicability.


Research limitations/implications
This study provides a relevant and important substantiation for validity and reliability across contexts and through time. It is important in research to establish a theoretical framework at the corporate level for business sustainability in connection with SDGs. This study is not without its limitations, but offers opportunities for further research.


Practical implications
The framework provides practitioners with a foundation to assess their efforts at business sustainability, taking into account a broad selection of aspects across environmental, social and economic elements that contribute to SDGs.


Originality/value
This study makes two relevant and valuable contributions to developing a framework of TBL dominant logic for business sustainability, namely, validation and expansion. It offers also multiple opportunities for both research and practice to assess business sustainability efforts across environmental, social and economic aspects in relation to SDGs.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is two-fold: to determine the extent to which companies' efforts aimed at sustainable business practices consider stakeholders in their organisations and business networks, the marketplace and society; and to validate or refute a stakeholder framework of business sustainability efforts within focal companies, the marketplace, society and business networks.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a questionnaire survey targeting large companies across industries and sectors in Spain. The sample consisted of 231 companies generating a useable response rate of 38.5 per cent. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on a cross-industry sample to test a five-dimensional framework.FindingsThis study reports on the validation of initial and refined factor solutions. The factor analysis confirmed five stakeholder dimensions related to business sustainability efforts of organisations, their business networks, marketplace and society. The validated results indicate satisfactory convergent, discriminant and nomological validity and reliability through time and across contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThe stakeholder framework in connection with business sustainability efforts in supply chains consisting of five factors was validated: the focal company, downstream stakeholders, societal stakeholders, market stakeholders and upstream stakeholders. Suggestion for further research is provided.Practical implicationsThe validated framework of stakeholders allows an insight into the environment in which stakeholders operate and how they influence the focal company.Originality/valueThe manuscript contributes to the validation of a stakeholder framework of business sustainability efforts within focal companies, their business networks, the marketplace and society. The measurement properties provide support for acceptable validity and reliability across contexts and through time.