Green Light for Business Sustainability: Mapping Green Practices as the Emerging Competitive Edge in Global Business

Abstract

This study explores the theoretical and empirical linkages between green practices and business sustainability through the lens of three key frameworks: the Resource Based View (RBV), the Natural Resource Based View (NRBV), and Porter’s Hypothesis. The RBV underscores sustainability oriented resources such as eco innovation, green supply chains, and energy efficient technologies as valuable, rare, inimitable, and non substitutable (VRIN), positioning them as drivers of durable competitive advantage. Extending this perspective, the NRBV integrates ecological stewardship by emphasizing pollution prevention, product stewardship, and clean technology as strategic capabilities that convert environmental responsibility into long term competitiveness. Complementing these internal resource based approaches, Porter’s Hypothesis highlights the role of well designed environmental regulation as a catalyst for eco innovation, suggesting that compliance costs can be transformed into efficiency gains and new market opportunities. Together, these theories present a holistic framework where internal resources, ecological capabilities, and external regulatory pressures collectively reinforce the strategic role of sustainability in global business. The paper also examines how green practices generate competitive advantage through cost efficiency, market differentiation, innovation, risk management, and human capital development. To capture research trends, bibliometric mapping of sustainability literature (2000 2024) identifies six dominant themes: eco innovation, sustainable supply chains and circular economy, ESG and green finance, digitalization for green growth, regulation driven innovation, and geographic as well as disciplinary shifts. These clusters reveal the evolving intellectual structure of the field, with increasing contributions from developing economies and interdisciplinary studies. The findings highlight that sustainability is no longer peripheral but central to corporate strategy, shaping competitiveness in the global economy.