Nonmarket strategy in emerging markets: The link between SMEs’ corporate political activity, corporate social responsibility, and firm competitiveness
研究基于资源基础观和制度文献，分析中小企业在新兴市场中企业政治活动与企业社会责任如何共同影响竞争力，并考察经济困境、营销能力和外资所有权的调节作用。
Motivated by inconsistent findings in prior research on nonmarket strategy (NMS), we draw on insights from the resource-based view (RBV) and institutional literature to examine the relationship between corporate political activity (CPA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm competitiveness. Data from two African and two Asian countries (N = 499) largely support the hypotheses and extend our understanding of the contingencies that affect the relationship between CPA as well as CSR and firm competitiveness. We specifically highlight the moderating role of economic adversity, marketing capability, and foreign ownership. Additionally, we show that CPA and CSR have strong combined effects that allow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to leverage their resource complementarity to navigate the challenges in emerging markets, which in turn enhances their competitiveness.