Business strategy and sustainability of Chinese SMEs: determining the moderating role of environmental uncertainty

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between business strategy and sustainability of Chinese SMEs and how the environmental uncertainty may affect this relationship. It analyses the impact of active and passive business strategies on firms’ sustainability and tests the potential moderating role of economic policy uncertainty in this relationship. The empirical analysis is performed by employing fixed-effect and GMM estimations on data collected from 937 Chinese A-share non-financial companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2021. The results show that the high-risk active business strategy of innovation and new market development is associated with greater business sustainability, and this relationship is stronger for SMEs than for non-SMEs in China. Moreover, higher economic policy uncertainty strengthens the positive relationship between active business strategy and firm sustainability, implying that in periods of higher environmental uncertainty firms which pursue active business strategy achieve greater business sustainability. These findings are useful for devising business strategy and can assist in formulating policy initiatives seeking to ensure sustainable development of SMEs in China.