Investigating the Configuration of Factors for Sustainable Firm Performance

ABSTRACT This paper investigates awareness‐motivation‐capability (AMC) related factors and their configurations for improving sustainable firm performance. The study is two‐phased. In the first phase, factors influencing sustainable firm performance were identified through a review of the literature. Then, multiple case studies were conducted to validate the factors, identify new factors in the context of the study, and categorize them under the AMC framework. In the second stage, a survey was conducted with 63 practitioners in the pharmaceutical industry to explore alternative configurations of factors leading to sustainable firm performance using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). In the first phase, seven factors were found in the literature, and the case study revealed two more factors influencing sustainable firm performance, which were categorized under the AMC framework. The results of the second phase identified six distinct configurations of factors that contribute to sustainable firm performance. Among the configurations, those emphasizing government support, competitive advantage, firm's sustainability commitment, organizational slack, top management support, and skilled workforce were central. While prior studies have employed the AMC framework in various business domains, this study is among the first to apply it to configure factors for sustainable firm performance using a configurational approach. The insights from the configurations can assist practitioners and policymakers in developing policies to address issues with sustainable firm performance.