Xing-Can Zhang

This study explores how slack resources can enhance firms’ sustainable competitive advantage by combining economics and organizational behavior within a strategic management framework. Specifically, we examine the relationships between three types of slack resources—available, recoverable, and potential—and three environmental dimensions: munificence, dynamism, and complexity. Our dataset comprises 34,261 observations from 4,045 listed firms across 34 provincial-level administrative regions in China, spanning the years 1993 to 2021. The results indicate that each type of slack resource has an inverted U-shaped relationship with performance, suggesting the existence of a Pareto optimal level of resource allocation. However, this relationship and the position of the Pareto optimal point are not constant. Environmental factors moderate the relationship between slack resources and performance, leading to fluctuations in Pareto optimal values and per-unit value. By expanding and integrating the resource-based view and the structure–conduct–performance paradigm, we explain the relationships between various slack resources and different industrial environments. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for enhancing sustainable competitive advantage.

The fisheries sector in developing countries, including Pakistan, faces various risks that have not been comprehensively studied and addressed through policy measures. This study aims to analyze fisheries’ risks in Pakistan by following a risk management process and using statistical analysis. The data was collected through structured questionnaire surveys, and subsequently, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) and importance performance analysis (IPA) were utilized to analyze the data. The study ranked the top five risks in order of importance as management, technical, economic, environmental, and occupational risks. The study also identified high-importance, low-performance sub-factors, including inadequate legislative implementation, overexploitation, and infrastructure shortages. It was found that there is low risk perception and inadequate management regulations in the sector. The findings suggest that risk management strategies, such as risk avoidance and risk transfer, can be used to mitigate fisheries’ risks. The study highlights the need for policy measures to revitalize the fisheries sector in Pakistan and provides recommendations for further research.