Towards an integrative framework of collaborative capabilities for sustainability: A systematic review and research agenda

This paper attempts to contribute to a deeper understanding of the concept of Collaborative Capability for Sustainability (CCS) by providing an overview of the academic literature on this topic and the delimitation of associated attributes. This was carried out through a systematic literature review (SLR). Thereby, the following specific goals were outlined: (i) to provide an overview of the literature on CCS; (ii) to propose an integrative framework of CCS attributes to reinforce sustainable strategies and relational rents; (iii) to propose a research agenda for the CCS. As collaborative capability is considered dynamic, we found that the term that best summarizes the idea of the firm's capability of developing interorganizational collaboration to improve corporate sustainability performance is the expression "collaborative capability for sustainability - CCS ". By thoroughly analysing the papers, we identified ten attributes for CCS and their relations with sustainability issues. We also verified that the sources of relational rents could be obtained through CCS developed to achieve sustainability challenges. Based on this, we propose the framework to integrate these results and demonstrate that companies seeking to improve their economic, environmental, and social performance can develop and further explore ten core CCS attributes to implement NRBV strategies, as well as achieve relational rents. Based on results, we propose a research agenda composed of five issues: research method, type network, research focus, NRBV strategies, and impact of CCS on sustainability. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.