Digital capability and creative capability to boost firm performance and formulate differentiated CSR-based strategy

Abstract

Digitalization has facilitated the improvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Firms develop their internal skills to deal with external challenges stemming from the digitalization process and the COVID-19 crisis. Founded on the dynamic capability view, our paper empirically tests how firms utilize their digital and creative capabilities to improve their performance during the pandemic and promote their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The study conducted a two-step analysis. First, the data from 151 enterprises in Vietnam was collected and analyzed qualitatively to understand their digital capabilities and export performance. Then, the Smart PLS version 3 was utilized to analyze extended quantitative data of 329 SMEs in various industries. This study contributes to the theories of dynamic capability with the implications of developing digital and creative capabilities to enhance performance and CSR differentiation strategy in dealing with external challenges, especially in global pandemics. Firm performance plays a mediating role in the relationship between capabilities and CSR differentiation strategy. Our study also enriches the CSR literature by viewing CSR as firms' achieved targets or voluntary activities instead of as an instrument to boost firm performance. This research provides the background for internationalization researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to face obstacles and overcome barriers, enhance digital and creative capabilities, engage in digital platforms, and benefit from international marketing, international retailing, and CSR activities.

1. Introduction

The development of information technology in general, and digital trading platforms in particular, has transformed many firms into virtual structures with strategies to match [1]. This digital transformation has opened numerous opportunities for enterprises and service providers to do business internationally. The total value of retail e-commerce sales worldwide was estimated to have reached 4280 billion USD in 2020 [2]. With a digital development rate of 36% in 2020, Vietnam has developed as one of the fastest-growing digital economies. Vietnamese e-commerce revenue in 2020 was valued at more than 11.8 billion USD, accounting for 5.5% of products and services total merchandising sales [3]. Digital platforms can broadcast and engage consumers in bilateral dialogs by creating ideas, getting comments, and seeking their involvement [4]. Through digital platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Uber, Airbnb, and Linkedin, firms collaborate to create joint solutions and performance that go beyond organizational borders, co-evolve their skills, and produce value for themselves and society. Being a part of a business digital platform allows firms to tap into a larger pool of diversified knowledge, which is critical for co-creating value, developing digital business competencies [5], and integrating social and environmental issues into their company operations and relationships with stakeholders. While large multinational enterprises have become familiar with multiple digital trading platforms to enhance their retail internationalization, the digital internationalization of local small firms is hampered by underdeveloped information and communications technology infrastructures [6], institutional complexity, and limited resource-specific factors [1]. In late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, necessitating a shift in business strategies. However, little is known about firms utilizing digital platforms to overcome external shocks triggered by the COVID-19 crisis, to improve their international business performance.

Moreover, the internal characteristics of firms may also affect their performance [7] and their internationalization process. For example, the internal factors concerning ‘inexperienced exporters’, such as lack of digital capability, may also discourage firms from approaching digital platforms and the internationalizing process [8]. Another internal capability, a firm's ability to generate new knowledge or creativity, is proposed as a critical resource characterized as valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable [9,10]. Creativity or creative capability also contributes to firms' performance and influences their internationalization strategy incentives. In the context of fierce competition and the high speed of technological changes, firms tend to adapt and move toward a digital platform business model. However, the impacts of firms' internal capabilities, particularly digital and creative capabilities, on their performance during crises in general, and the COVID-19 pandemic in particular, remain unclear.

Furthermore, to reap reputational benefits, firms must effectively extend their CSR efforts to stakeholders including consumers and workers [11]. Their motive is most likely to pursue socially sustainable and responsible actions [12] to enhance their business performance, which entails a transition in the firm operation from competent service providers to CSR performers [13,14]. Achieving a certain level of performance could be considered the result of a firm’s strategies, including CSR-related ones. Therefore, how firms recognize the role of their CSR activities could, in turn, reflect the achievements of their business performance [15]. However, the relationship between firms' performance and firms' self-evaluation/recognition of their CSR activities has not been paid much attention to. Moreover, little has been known empirically about digital capability and creative capability as mechanisms to enhance firm performance toward CSR activities. Thus, a question arises: To what extent firms that put their effort into digital capability and creative capability toward improving firm performance can establish CSR activities during COVID-19?

The objectives of this paper are as follows. First, examining firms and their efforts to utilize external factors such as digital platforms to overcome contextual barriers and boost their international performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, exploring how firms develop their internal capabilities, particularly their digital and creative capabilities to enhance their performance during the COVID-19 crisis. Finally, this paper explores the relationship between firms' performance and firms' self-evaluation/recognition of their CSR strategies.

This study applies the dynamic capability view (DCV) to achieve the above-mentioned objectives. The DCV helps us understand how firms' internal capabilities have been adjusted to the changes in the external context, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, the study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative section was first conducted using semi-structured telephone interviews with 151 Vietnamese managers to understand the firm’s reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic to develop digital capability. Based on the results analyzed from the qualitative data, we then developed an extended survey with 329 managers in various industries to quantitatively examine the empirical model using the Smart PLS version 3.3.

This paper provides theoretical and practical contributions. Despite the ubiquitous widespread use of digital capability and creative capability in business operations, their role in boosting performance toward CSR initiatives has not been well studied, with few exceptions. First, regarding the theoretical angle, based on the DCV, it provides an insightful integration of the two elements of (i) firms' internal capabilities specifically digital and creative capabilities, and (ii) SME firms' performance in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. Second, we shed light on the CSR literature by reviewing its role from a different angle of dynamic capability, relating to firm performance. This paper gives an interdisciplinary assessment of practices connected to CSR strategy culminating in two analyses of two studies. With positive business performance, CSR activities have been highlighted as firms' voluntary activities instead of an instrument for financial targets. In terms of practical issues, this current research provides a background for internationalization researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to face obstacles and overcome barriers such as the COVID-19 pandemic, enhance digital and creative capabilities, engage in digital platforms, and benefit from international marketing, retailing, and CSR activities. Additionally, our research adds to the existing body of literature by revealing how businesses in various industries establish long-term strategies for achieving competitive advantages by using digital platforms.

2. Conceptual framework

2.1. The development of digitalization and CSR in the COVID-19 pandemic

Information and communications technology (ICT) advances have created numerous innovative breakthroughs to enhance business efficiency and effectiveness for domestic firms [1]. A digital platform is an omnipresent mechanism utilized to lower the cultural and physical barriers to approaching international business, and disregard distance and time differences. The process of an enterprise utilizing digital technology to create an innovative digital business framework that enables them to generate more value is referred to as “digital transformation” [16]. In recent years, digital transformation has reshaped how enterprises do business, establish relationships with users, providers, and other partners, and encourage new business models [17,18]. Firms benefit from digital platforms by lowering operation costs, collaborating h the strengths of enterprises, appreciating economies of scale [[19], [20], [21]], allowing automated and semi-automated communication, customizing consumer decision journeys [22], and improving the logistics chain [23]. For years, information technology firms have established digital platforms [19], while the traditional industrial sector has made fewer efforts [24]. Despite their limited resources, ICT-enabled e-commerce, digital communication devices, and intermediaries provide local manufacturing firms with numerous opportunities for untapped broad market segments and low-cost marketing channels [25]. Using the dynamic view, the research analyzes the major forces impacting firms' efforts to expand their operations digitally and globally.

Numerous worldwide crises have disrupted goods and services flows [26], with disastrous repercussions for company and supply chain performance nationally and globally [27]. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic reduced global economic growth by 4.2% in 2020, while growth rates in the Eurozone, the United States, and Japan fell by 7.5%, 3.7%, and 5.3%, respectively. Similarly, worldwide real trade growth in 2020 was 10.3% lower than in 2019 [28]. To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, governments responded with travel bans restricting economic activity and people's movement [29]. This requires firms to be flexible to withstand the crisis. Digital platforms are commonly seen as multifaceted marketplaces that enable new kinds of customer and supplier involvement while also having the potential to disrupt traditional markets [30]. The digital platform has become an effective channel of communication and distribution that is used for planning, executing, and analyzing purchasing decisions as buyer trust in online commerce grows [31,32]. The development of e-commerce and digital merchants has pushed traditional businesses to change their business strategies to maintain market dominance. Many conventional brick-and-mortar businesses have transformed digitally, built web-based storefronts, developed social media communities and mobile applications, or expanded their digital consumer touchpoints [33]. Under normal circumstances, digital technologies have been demonstrated to boost competitiveness, productivity, and performance [5]. However, it is unclear how firms utilize digital platforms and how this may influence their performance in the COVID-19 crisis.

Digitalization is the act of making use of digital opportunities, whereas digital transformation is the process of adaptation to changing conditions [34]. Digital transformation can support firms in performing CSR activities, which comprise the financial, social, legal, ethical, and environmental expectations that the community has for companies at any particular moment [35]. Aside from theoretical considerations, businesses have grown increasingly active in putting CSR into practice [36,37].

CSR is the solution to the uncertainties that firms face in today’s business arena [[38], [39], [40], [41]]. External CSR practices focus on contribution to society, the natural environment, and customers, while internal CSR activities involve formal CSR programs within which employees may engage and enjoy developmental advantages that echo employers' concern for their workforces [42]. Firms engage in CSR activities such as allocating funds, resources, time, and products to address a social need [43]. During any crisis, a firm must protect stakeholders, such as workers, customers, and society [44]. During COVID-19, the absence of a digital mechanism is one of the most underreported socioeconomic disparities [45]. Although considerable effort has been made to upscale those who are inexpert in technology, the digital mechanism is a challenge. Peoples come from lower socioeconomic conditions, they counter digital accessibility and knowledge insufficiencies. Many employees couldn't use technology for work-from-home transformation during COVID-19 lockdown times. Recognizing the differences between ‘remote’ and ‘virtual’ can assist organizations and employees address this issue. Companies should help society and its key stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, relying on CSR theory. This task is due to a rise in environmentally concerned clients who want more environmentally friendly products and services [46]. CSR has long been perceived as a critical component in achieving economic objectives and creating wealth [47]. As a result, many studies have attempted to find a global link between CSR and firm performance [[48], [49], [50]], and a digital link between organizational capability and value creation [35,51]. All else being equal, most research has shown that high CSR performers have higher business performance [39,40,[52], [53], [54]]. We will study the association between CSR and firm performance reversely, which means identifying how firms engage in CSR activities after reaching a greater level of performance.

2.2. The dynamics perspectives of firms

The DCV investigates how businesses obtain temporary benefits over time by efficiently responding to future environmental shocks [55,56]. As described by Teece, Pisano [57], dynamic capabilities are the firm’s capability to innovate, develop, and incorporate new ideas to deal with changing environments. The DCV contends that valuable, unique, and non-substitutable resources seem to be inadequate for businesses to maintain competitive advantages in changing contexts [58]. According to the DCV, companies must have dynamic capacities to attain technological and evolutionary fitness [59]. Thus, dynamic capability has been conceptualized as capabilities and their particular requirements as processes [59] in terms of latent action. The dynamic capability has been proposed to play the function of changing resources [57,59], capabilities [60], operating procedures, or a mix of these depending on the venue of transformation. Dynamic capabilities refer to the ability to change [61].

Ordinary capabilities refer to the ability to do operational or managerial activities necessary for businesses to complete tasks [62]. Dynamic capacities include sensing, seizing, and transforming abilities [55]. In addition, firms with dynamic capabilities can achieve technical readiness regularly by adjusting their capabilities to carry out routine tasks in changing contexts by reconfiguring their resource bases. Firms' evolutionary successes are enhanced by their abilities to match or even create market shifts [59,63]. Because evaluating dynamic capabilities only through the lens of underlying processes or routines may be problematic [61], we chose to conceptualize dynamic capabilities as changing capabilities including creative and digital capabilities.

The natural attributes of firm resources are scarce, heterogeneous, tradable, or limited access [64,65], and are used to gain a sustainable competitive advantage [66]. While resources are context-dependent, firms that can increase their valuable resources will improve their business performance and prevent competitors from replicating their achievements [66]. A dynamic view is an approach to a marketing strategy which argues that firms' most critical activities are gaining competitive advantages, structuring the markets, and determining transaction conditions in environmental turbulence. The management factor of dynamic capabilities allows for firm-level diversification and therefore accounts for the long-term durability of competitive advantages [67]. In addition, firms with dynamic capabilities may enhance productivity gains by exporting mechanisms that explain learning-by-exporting behavior, new product development, and knowledge leverage [68]. Table 1 illustrates the CSR and related studies.

Table 1.

CSR and related studies.

Construct	Key differences	Illustrative studies
Cultural sensemaking of CSR	International management (IM) needs to comprehend how managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) interpret cultural differences in cross-border business interactions, particularly when it comes to CSR in interactions between businesses from emerging and developed nations. The study determines how pairs of Russian and Finnish SME managers involved in reciprocal international business partnerships create their concept of CSR. The results show that CSR is ingrained in the cultural backgrounds of SME management and in the surrounding environment. This adds to the little knowledge of CSR in cross-cultural SME contexts and expands earlier research on the role of CSR in IM. It also responds to recommendations for research on the micro-foundations of CSR and internationalization.	[69]
CSR intensity: Shareholders' value adding or destroying?	This study investigates whether increasing CSR efforts in Nigeria can increase or decrease a company's worth. Between 2009 and 2018, the data from 56 listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) were analyzed using a fixed effect regression analytical method. Based on Global Reporting, this study monitored environmental, social, and economic responsibility initiatives. According to the study, companies that actively engage in social responsibility see a positive but negligible impact on their stock value. This argued that the ideal strategy is to avoid taking a forceful social responsibility stance because this could harm shareholders' value. In contrast, this study discovered that the medium social responsibility model had a major impact on businesses. The middle course approach is the finest social responsibility tactic and greatly boosts shareholder value. An additional test revealed that generally speaking, businesses' environmental, social, and economic responsibility initiatives greatly increase their market worth. However, the intensity of the actions and governance frameworks will determine how much of an impact there will be.	[70]
Effects of CSR on SMEs' performance in emerging market	This study explores the mediating effects of corporate reputation (CR) and customers' purchasing intentions (CPI) on the relationship between CSR and businesses' performance (CPI).	[71]
The impact of CSR disclosure and board characteristics on corporate performance	The study examine how board attributes like board independence, board size, and gender diversity affect company performance. It will also look into the effects of CSR disclosure. This study used a quantitative approach to determine the impact, collecting secondary data and utilizing smart partial least squares to analyze the data (PLS). The population consists of the top 250 global energy corporations for the years of 2016, 2017, and 2018. This study demonstrated that board independence and the influence of CSR disclosure on corporate performance are not particularly significant. As a result, gender diversity and board size significantly impact on how well a company performs.	[15]
Examining moderating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between market pressure and corporate environmental strategy	This study looks into how market pressures, such as those from customers and competitors, encourage businesses to build a proactive environmental strategy and how a flexibility-control attitude, which is a typical illustration of company culture, might temper such consequences. The findings of a survey of 250 Chinese manufacturing companies point to direct links between consumer and rival pressures and the proactiveness of environmental strategies. Finally, the links between these two market forces and the proactive nature of enterprises' environmental strategies depend on both flexibility and control orientations.	[72]

2.3. Hypothesis development

2.3.1. Firms' creative capability and digital capability

According to the DCV, creative capability or knowledge generation is a critical strategic supply that contributes to outstanding performance [9,73]. As a result, creativity is critical to a company's competitive advantage, which has aroused the interest of many academics [74]. An organization's expertise is embedded in its people and their social experiences, the creative capability depend on these individuals exchanging and integrating information, and ideas [75]. The capability of a firm's creativity is determined by its representatives' ability to share and merge expertise into new knowledge, and understanding the meaning of the discussion and interaction [76]. The ability to create knowledge may lead to greater performance in all cases. A firm's competitive advantage is achieved by its scarce and non-substitutable capital [58]. By creating new knowledge, awareness, and developmental capability, creative capability helps in dealing with digitalization trends [77]. Creative capability depends on organizational participants sharing and merging information and knowledge that is difficult to duplicate [77]. Moreover, creative capability has significant influence on performance efficiency [9]. We argue that the DCV would provide a more robust and more informative interpretation of the connection between creative capability and firm results.

Regarding how firms' capabilities differ in various external contexts, the DCV advocates exploring the interactions between the firms' capabilities in building successive temporary advantages by effectively responding to external shocks. We can see how a firm's creative capability leads to higher performance by spreading this idea to offer a more fine-grained image of the presentation influence of creative capability. Thus, we propose:

Hypothesis 1

Firms' creative capability positively impacts firms' performance.

Many business ideas that have been generated quickly become obsolete, necessitating the creation of new digital platforms for innovative and successful businesses [30]. An increasing number of businesses are exploring digital technology-based business innovations [78]. Employees may use and improve existing technology resources and systems to satisfy additional business requirements as they develop the technical skills needed to adopt digital platforms. IT performance refers to new capabilities generated by combining previously created digital objects. Personnel in the information technology industry who keep learning new technical skills and building new development capabilities should be better equipped to perform at a higher level [79]. As a result, prior research shows that IT employees who are supported to acquire new technological skills may improve performance and that firms with such management human capital would be better able to use and deploy technologies to pursue positive performance [80,81]. Dynamic service analytics capabilities enable quick reaction mechanisms for understanding business settings, visualizing options, and making effective decisions to improve business agility and deliver services in real-time [82]. Digitalization facilitates the creation of information systems and the use of novel technologies that improve the supply chain's incorporation and agility, which increase customer service and the firm’s sustainability [83]. Firms adapt their operations to digital technologies including social media and platforms, data analytics, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and cyber-physical systems integration. Firms involve digital projects in their production process. Personnel is capable of carrying out production by collecting data via IoT devices and implementing analytical tools to make predictive analyses on product quality trends. This holistic and integrated approach generated from digitalization is digital capabilities affecting the organization in social, technical, technological, and managerial ways [84].

The ability of a company to procure, use, combine, and reconfigure digital technology-related resources in support of its business operations and strategies is reflected in its digital capability [84,85]. A company with excellent digital capability is expected to exhibit high capability in the infrastructure-related, human-related, and partnership-related dimensions. Digital capability may contain three components including flexible digital infrastructure, digitalization-related human capital, and high-quality partnerships [86]. Digital infrastructure flexibility refers to a company's capacity to swiftly and simply provide and combine a wide range of communications, software, and hardware to deliver technical solutions [87]. Digital human capital measures how well the company's IT staff members possess the necessary business, technical, and managerial abilities, as well as firm-specific knowledge including a thorough knowledge of the firm's business procedures, conventions, and culture. The quality of the partnerships that the company's IT department has with other business units, vendors, and digital service providers is referred to as digital partnership quality [86].

For organizational learning and efficient operation, digital capacity is crucial. Digital capacity can ease the process of corporate learning and contribute to the efficient business model and novelty business model [80]. By allowing the company and its employees to more precisely and quickly acquire, share, and use the information at any time, digital capability fosters efficient learning and performance [88]. Digital competence offers a practical means for the focus firm to connect digitally and build strong bonds with a variety of stakeholders, including those who weren't previously involved (such as suppliers, customers, and rivals) [89]. The numerous links speed up the process of learning and sharing information, ensuring that each participant is up to date on organizational knowledge [90]. Additionally, digital capability offers a variety of tools for knowledge storage and retrieval, making it easier for organizational members to access knowledge that is kept within the business [88].

We contend that digitalization is essential to helping businesses establish tight ties with many stakeholders. Businesses may significantly enhance their interactions with stakeholders through digitalization to find, share, store, and analyze information and resources more effectively [91]. Various information technology and communication methods have been suggested to enable businesses to coordinate widely distributed knowledge and capacities [92]. For instance, by achieving real-time and accurate information exchange among supply chain stakeholders through internal digitalization [93], businesses can more effectively detect superfluous assets and weak operational links. External digitalization can also help businesses engage more closely with their most important clients by removing time and space barriers [94]. This may make it possible for customers to contribute to the development and design of a company's goods or services [95]. In order to accomplish successful firm innovation, internal and external digitalization enable declining enterprises to obtain pertinent knowledge and information about how to undertake layoffs and/or strategic innovative actions [81,96].

Acquiring new technology abilities demonstrates that digital capabilities can keep up with technological advancements. Furthermore, understanding the latest digital technology demonstrates IT personnel’s professional expertise, making it easier for them to acquire the trust of business personnel [97]. As a consequence, businesses will be more open to IT personnel's assistance in pursuing competitive possibilities or improving company performance through the use of digital platforms [98]. Thus, we propose this:

Hypothesis 2

Firms' digital capability positively impacts firm performance.

2.3.2. Firm performance and CSR-based differentiation strategy

According to market-based law, an industry's competition structure predicts firms' CSR strategic choices [71,99]. Depending on their competitive background, firms can play a market-distinction role [70]. The foreign target market influences export firms' strategic decisions. Increased exports as a percentage of total revenue or increased export intensity may suggest that the firm has improved its internationalization process performance, which might become a business goal in and of itself [100]. On the other hand, increased export intensity will increase a company's reliance on foreign markets [77]. If a company's export intensity is high, it relies more on foreign customers and other international stakeholders than it is on local partners. There is a positive association between a company's expertise in navigating world markets and its access to them, the exporter continues to invest more time and capital in acquiring knowledge and information about these foreign markets, causing the company to become more reliant on them. Because market awareness is such an essential component of strategy creation, foreign market knowledge influences an exporter's strategy more and more as the company's volume of exports grows. Analysts examine how export intensity influences a company's policy rather than considering export intensity as a dependent variable [101]. This surprising reversal of conventional thinking is compatible with the internationalization model's circular and path-dependent existence [102]. We argue that expertise gained via export-strength impacts CSR-based differentiating approaches at the product and business levels.

Experience, in particular, is tied to the unique circumstances under which organizations conduct business. On the other hand, general information may be passed through countries and can include the following elements: operational expertise, marketing strategies, partnership networks, operations, and commodity knowledge [102]. In addition, prior research uncovered a constructive association between a company's internationalization and a firm manager’s visible regard for ethical issues [101].

Because firms might receive CSR-related information regarding systems, goods, and methodologies through business operations, the authors argue that the outcome may differ when we examine strategic CSR. Firms will then alter their offers and reorganize their value chains. Furthermore, the expertise developed through business progress allows enterprises to capitalize on the benefits obtained from their goods' unique characteristics [101]. After understanding the CSR philosophies, firms may use CSR-compliant products to increase their performance in foreign marketplaces. If firms' market presences expand, the likelihood that input is certainly linked with the CSR-based differentiating method at the product level increases.

The approach to differentiation based on CSR is impacted by exposure to export markets. Participating in networks of integrated business interactions with partners and customers is how internationalization is defined [102]. Different stakeholders can enhance a company's networking connections with its customers and partners. Relations with a wide range of partners provide additional sources of awareness from which to adopt economic and environmental responsibility [103]. A good reputation is essential in establishing and sustaining networks with providers, clients, and other partners. A company's credibility is intrinsically related to its CSR activities [104]. A company's access to global markets may require a CSR-based diversity model at the enterprise level if its international network links require social and environmental engagement. As a company's openness to foreign markets rises, the likelihood of implementing a firm-level CSR-based differentiating plan increases. Thus, the authors argue that increased exposure to foreign markets will enhance a company's interactions with international partners. Hence, firms will face additional pressure to develop CSR differentiating strategies at the firm and product levels, such as incorporating new technological qualities into their products and services and extending their brands further into the global economy.

Hypothesis 3

At the product level, firm performance positively impacts a CSR-based differentiation strategy.

Hypothesis 4

At the firm level, firm performance positively impacts a CSR-based differentiation strategy.

Fig. 1 shows our conceptual model.

Fig. 1.

Conceptual model.

3. Methodology and data analysis

3.1. Research design and sampling

This study employed a two-step analysis. First, qualitative analysis was used, with open-ended questionnaires distributed to the Vietnamese SMEs Association and Vietnam E-commerce Association. Vietnam was chosen because of its dynamic and attractive investment environment [105]. Potentially, emerging digital technologies enable the country to benefit from foreign investment, modernized digital infrastructure, improved knowledge and skills transfer, and change consumption to a higher value [106]. With the development of digital technologies, Vietnamese firms are able to enhance their performance, and export to new markets [106]. Open-ended questions assist us in explaining the public's perspectives on specific issues [[107], [108], [109]]. Specifically, the open-ended questions help us understand the firms' views on their inner capabilities as well as their opinions regarding the firm’s utilization of digital platforms perspective. Then, based on the findings of the qualitative analysis, we developed our quantitative survey on a larger scale. All the survey questions are back-translated into the Vietnamese language by a team of two Ph.D. researchers to make sure the consistency of different language versions. The combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches was anticipated to reduce the limitations of the two individual methodologies, such as discovering spontaneous replies from respondents and avoiding the bias that may come from suggesting responses to them [110].

3.2. Qualitative data design and analysis

During the pandemic in 2020, phone interviews were used to collect qualitative data for analysis. The survey respondents have been identified by the Vietnam E-commerce Association. All the respondents were compensated for their survey participation. The research team surveyed 151 enterprises from the North, Middle, and South of Vietnam to find out their needs and challenges when applying e-commerce to develop production and business. Among the surveyed firms, it was recorded that (i) 38.4% are engaged in exporting; (ii) America, Western Europe, Japan, Korea, ASEAN, China, and Taiwan are the main export markets; and (iii) 63.2% of enterprises are in manufacturing, including textiles, food processing, ceramics, bamboo, and rattan handicrafts; and the remainder are in construction, commerce, and transportation.

The report has been compiled as follows. The respondents were asked to evaluate their firms' digital technological capability (DC), rewards of digital platforms (DR), and firm performance (FP) after using digital platforms. According to the survey results, most businesses use the internet to interact with customers (98.0%) and to seek information (94.7%). About half of the enterprises advertise in the social media community which is integrated with digital business platforms (57.6%) and manage their firms’ business operations digitally (49.7%). However, the proportions of enterprises doing business on e-commerce trading floors and updating information on their websites are much lower (31.8% and 31.1%, respectively). Up to 58.9% of the respondents report that they do not have professional/technical personnel working in information technology or with digital platforms (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Digital capability (DC).

Activities when using digital platforms	%
Send and receive email transactions with customers, maintain customer relationships	98.0
Seek and browse for new information	94.7
Advertise in the social media community which is integrated with digital business platforms	57.6
Manage firms' business operation digitally	49.7
Do business on digital platforms and other e-commerce trading platforms	31.8
Update information on their digital platforms	31.1
Have professional/technical personnel working in information technology or with digital platforms	58.9

The engagement of these enterprises with digital platforms is still low. The main activities of digital platforms, such as transactions (ordering, payment, and delivery), are still limited. Furthermore, firms make little investment in information technology and digital platforms. Among the firms that participated in digital platforms, 93.2% of respondents assessed that digital platforms and e-commerce help increase their export revenue while 84.1% of respondents agree that their import revenue improves thanks to digital platform application. The amount of the firm’s website traffic and their appearance on Google searches also benefit from the digital platform participation (84.1% and 77.3% of respondents’ agreement, respectively). The majority of businesses (93.2%) participating in digital trading platforms assessed that digital platform and e-commerce helps increase revenue. Up to 40.9% of respondents report the reduction of export costs compared to traditional methods. However, according to the research results here, 22.7% of enterprises still think that the cost of exporting through digital trading platforms is higher than the cost of traditional exports. One of the reasons is that the business has opened an online store but has not had any orders for a long time (see Table 3).

Table 3.

Firm performance after joining digital platforms (FP).

Items	Interviewed firms (%)
	Increase	Decrease
Export revenue	93.2	2.3
Import revenue	84.1	2.3
Amount of firm’s website traffic	84.1	0.0
Appear on Google search	77.3	0.0
Online export costs compared to traditional export	22.7	40.9

Table 2, Table 3 summarize the results of the analysis and their associated data-structure operations. The study’s sample size was sufficient to guarantee diversity and topic saturation [111]. The interviews were documented and transcribed, and overarching themes were identified using thematic analysis. The hidden expressions of the themes were the statements from the recorded interviews. At this stage, the thematic analysis classifies meanings or threads in interview data that recur around digital capability and firm performance after joining e-commerce and/or digital platforms [112]. Digital capability is the amount to which IT employees learn new technology skills. It is described as the acquisition of new digital technology skills. Digitalization processes are described as a collection of connected or cooperating actions that convert inputs into outputs in order to support the organization's digitalization. The results of the literature review and survey indicate that the most important aspects of digitalization in organizations are organization strategy, and workforce upskilling [84]. Successful digitalization projects should include preparing and aligning the strategy, culture, talent, and process gathering to embrace this quickly changing environment. Digitalization is not simply about technology. Digitalization processes are organized into process categories: workforce management, information and technology, strategic governance [84]. The development of the “digital capability” construct was described in Fig. 2 while the interview data was then coded as shown in Table 4.

Fig. 2.

The development of the “digital capability” construct.

Table 4.

Coding used on the interview data.

Code	Description	Interview quotes
Digital Capability (DC)	DC1. Our firm acquires skills in online payment and procurement procedures.	“… faced difficulties with online payment procedures.”
	DC2. Our firm has recruited employees with digitalization-related skills/expertise.	“… faced problems in recruiting employees with e-commerce skills/expertise.”
	DC3. Our firm has utilized logistics and delivery services via a digital platform.	“… faced issues in utilizing logistics and delivery services.”
	DC4. Our firm has joined e-commerce and digital platforms.	“… faced difficulties in joining new e-commerce and digital platforms.”
Firm performance after joining e-commerce/digital platforms (FP)	FP1. Our firm's total revenue from e-commerce/digital platform increased last year (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)	“Gain from e-commerce/digital platform”
	FP2. Our firm's export revenue from e-commerce increased last year (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)	“Export from e-commerce/digital platform”
	FP3. Our firm's traffic volume increased last year (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)	“Traffic volume increased”
	FP4. Our firm's export costs when joining e-commerce increased last year (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)	“Our firm's export costs when joining e-commerce increased”

Note: DC = Digital Capability; FP = Firm performance after joining e-commerce/digital platforms.

The interviews aided in receiving a variety of viewpoints on digital capability, to confirm the findings of the theme literature study [82]. In addition, the interview method ensured that our findings were rigorous and relevant.

3.3. Quantitative data collection and measurement

The respondents for quantitative data have been identified by the Vietnam E-commerce Association. After a contract agreement, a survey was sent to a business digital platform, which serves as a supported distributor to managers, to gather data from small and medium-sized firms and suppliers registered as members. We applied the probability random sampling method. Vietnam E-commerce Association conducts an enterprise survey across the country every year. The private sectors and SMEs account for a majority of the total enterprising joining the survey every year. Thus, private sectors and SMEs are chosen for analysis because it covers a wide range of industries and supplies a large portion of the economic output, which in turn ensures the representativeness of our sample. To enhance the response rate and reduce any nonresponse bias, the replies were kept anonymous. To identify key informants, this study evaluated the demographic information (e.g., firm age, ownership, firm size) of the samples. The survey's target informants were department managers and executives because they were thought to be the most knowledgeable and trustworthy for our research. The final version of the poll had 329 respondents. Because it surpasses the necessary sample size of 100, the sample size is acceptable [113]. The descriptive data of the respondents is shown in Table 5. We were able to collect a wide range of demographic and geographic data using this digital platform.

Table 5.

Demographics.

Measure	Item	Frequency	Percentage
Firm age	<3 years	41	12.5
	3–6 years	122	37.1
	6–12 years	67	20.4
	>12 years	99	30.1
Ownership	Foreign direct investment	16	4.9
	Joint-stock companies	70	21.3
	Privately owned enterprises	191	58.1
	State-owned enterprises	41	12.5
	Other	11	3.3
Firm size (employee)	<50	70	21.3
	51–200	96	29.2
	201–500	100	30.4
	501–1000	38	11.6
	>1000	25	7.6
Firm size (revenue)	<$1 million	77	23.4
	$1–10 million	75	22.8
	$10–20 million	72	21.9
	$20–50 million	49	14.9
	$50–100 million	32	9.7
	> $100 million	19	5.8
	Other	5	1.5

Note: n = 329.

3.3.1. Measures

A seven-point Likert scale is used to assess all of the research constructs. Table 6, lists the measurement elements and their sources. Creative capability is defined as their ability to utilize digital platforms to improve their performance in CSR activities.

Table 6.

Measurement items and sources.

Measurement items	Sources
Creative capability (CC)	Su et al. (2016) [9]
CC1. Employees in our firm meet frequently to discuss work-related ideas and new developments.
CC2. Employees in our firm do not have difficulty getting together to exchange new ideas and developments.
CC3. Employees in our firm are proficient at combining and exchanging ideas to solve problems or create opportunities.
CC4. Employees in our firm do a good job of sharing their ideas to come up with new ideas, products, or services.
CC5. Employees in our firm learn to effectively pool their ideas and knowledge.
CC6. Employees in our firm see benefits from exchanging and combining ideas.
CSR-based differentiation strategy at the product level management (CSP)	Barin Cruz et al. (2013) [114]
CSP1. Our product differentiates itself from competitors' products on the international market by bearing a social or environmental certification.
CSP2. Our product differentiates itself from competitors' products on the international market by having been produced using supplies with social or environmental certification.
CSP3. Our product differentiates itself from competitors' products on the international market by having a reputation for environmental responsibility.
CSP4. Our product differentiates itself from competitors' products on the international market by having a reputation for being socially responsible.
CSR-based differentiation strategy at the firm level (CSF)	Barin Cruz et al. (2013) [114]
CSF1. Our firm develops projects that protect the interests, demands, and rights of minorities and/or those of the local community in which we operate.
CSF2. Our firm is recognized in our country as a leading firm in maintaining socially and environmentally responsible practices.
CSF3. Our firm is internationally recognized as a leading firm in maintaining socially and environmentally responsible practices.
Digital Capability (DC)	Self-developed based on interview and theoretical basis of digital capability
DC1. Our firm acquires skills in online payment and procurement procedures.
DC2. Our firm has recruited employees with digitalization-related skills/expertise.
DC3. Our firm has utilized logistics and delivery services via a digital platform.
DC4. Our firm has joined e-commerce and digital platforms.
Firm performance after joining e-commerce and digital platforms (FP)	Developed by authors
FP1. Our firm's total revenue from e-commerce and digital platform increased in 2020 (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)
FP2. Our firm's export revenue from e-commerce and digital platform increased in 2020 (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)
FP3. Our firm's traffic volume increased in 2020 (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)
FP4. Our firm's export costs when joining e-commerce and digital platform increased in 2020 (<0%, 0–10%, 10–20%, 20–30%, 30–40%, 40–50%, 50–60%, 60–70%, 70–80%, 80–90%, 90–100%, >100%)

3.3.2. Validity and reliability

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) is applied to analyze the measurement model and verify the reliability and validity of its components and items. Researchers can choose between variance-based partial least squares (PLS-SEM; Lohmoller [115]) and covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM, Joreskog and Sorbom [116]). Selecting either of the methods to use for your research requires careful consideration of the distinctions between the two methodologies. The primary purpose of CB-SEM is to validate existing theories (i.e., explanation). PLS, on the other hand, is a prediction-oriented method of SEM that is primarily employed in exploratory research but is also suitable for confirmatory research [117]. In particular, PLS-SEM researchers want their model to have high prediction accuracy while also being rooted in well-developed causal explanations, so bridging the apparent divide between confirmatory and predictive research [117]. CB-SEM is based on the common factor model, whereas PLS-SEM is based on the composite model, which is a key distinction between the two approaches [118]. In order to design a solution, one must first calculate the covariance between the study's variables. Only that common variance is then employed in the analysis because, according to the common factor model, the analysis should only be based on the common variance in the data. As a result, before considering the theoretical model, the specific variance and the error variance are eliminated from the study.

PLS-SEM version 3.3.3 is used for this study because it allows the researchers to investigate the phenomena at an early stage [119]. The SPSS PLS version 3.3.3 is used to analyze the structural model. The bootstrap resampling is used to test the estimates' stability and robust confidence intervals. The factor loadings of standardized indicators are expected to be above 0.7, which is acceptably reliable. The composite reliabilities are greater than 0.7 to ensure construct validity [120]. Cronbach’s alphas are reasonably high for construct reliability. The average variance extracted (AVE) and the inter-construct correlation is compared to indicate discriminant validity. AVEs for the latent variables, which are measured by reflective indicators, are suggested to be greater than 0.5 [120]. In a regression model, multicollinearity arises when two or more independent variables are strongly linked with one another, which suggests VIF to be less than 5 [117]. Table 7 demonstrates acceptable discriminant validity with sufficient evidence. Each construct has a larger square root of AVE than its correlations with other constructs to show discriminant validity. The AVE values and Cronbach alpha shown in Table 6 are above the suggested criteria.

Table 7.

Description, reliability, and discriminant validity.

	SFL	VIF	Mean	SD	Cronbach's Alpha	CR	AVE
CC1	0.764	1.705	5.292	1.225	0.858	0.894	0.585
CC2	0.711	1.544	5.070	1.377
CC3	0.801	1.940	5.173	1.251
CC4	0.774	1.879	5.353	1.285
CC5	0.761	1.680	5.252	1.203
CC6	0.775	1.755	5.313	1.315
DC1	0.787	1.476	5.465	1.304	0.683	0.804	0.507
DC2	0.717	1.276	4.988	1.498
DC3	0.672	1.250	5.006	1.350
DC4	0.666	1.469	5.492	1.257
FP1	0.920	3.894	5.438	2.559	0.932	0.952	0.831
FP2	0.924	4.096	5.465	2.674
FP3	0.884	2.985	5.745	2.629
FP4	0.918	3.764	5.511	2.745
CSF1	0.809	1.487	5.140	1.334	0.773	0.869	0.688
CSF2	0.835	1.725	5.064	1.410
CSF3	0.844	1.619	5.006	1.346
CSP1	0.864	2.058	5.164	1.282	0.855	0.902	0.696
CSP2	0.828	2.035	5.079	1.364
CSP3	0.835	2.002	5.112	1.411
CSP4	0.810	1.777	5.225	1.295

Note. SFL = Standardized Factor loading, SD = Standard Deviation, AVE = Average Variance Extracted, CR=Composite Reliability, VIF = Variance Inflation Factor; CC = Creative capability; DC = Digital Capability; FP= Firm Performance; CSP = Corporate Social Responsibility at Product-level; CSF = Corporate Social Responsibility at Firm-level.

Harman’s single-factor test is used to test common method variance (CMV). A principal component factor analysis loads all variables and the unrotated factor solution is examined. If more than one factor appears to explain the variance and a high percentage of the total variance loading, test results will indicate that neither (i) will a single factor emerge from the factor analysis nor (ii) will one general factor account for the majority of the covariance among the measures (p. 1282) [121]. The results reveal that the first construct only accounts for 20.95% of the variance, indicating that common method bias is unlikely to be of serious concern [122].

In addition, Pearson correlation is employed to assess the reliability and construct validity. The results reveal adequate qualifications for further testing (Table 8).

Table 8.

Pearson correlation.

	CC	DC	FP	CSP	CSF
CC	0.765
DC	0.083	0.848
FP	0.258**	0.136*	0.912
CSP	0.610**	0.048	0.349**	0.834
CSF	0.632**	0.046	0.314**	0.761**	0.829

Notes: CC =Creative capability; DC = Digital Capability; FP= Firm Performance; CSP = Corporate Social Responsibility at Product Level; CSF = Corporate Social Responsibility at Firm Level. The diagonal numbers represent square roots of average variance extracted (AVE), and the off-diagonal numbers represent the inter-construct correlations.

3.3.3. Structural model and analysis

To evaluate the structural model for this investigation, we used a bootstrapping sample of 5000 (results in Fig. 3). The R-squared values indicate the variation explained by the study's independent constructs, while the path coefficients show the strength of the link between dependent and independent constructs.

Fig. 3.

PLS-SEM results.

As shown in Fig. 3 and Table 9, creative capability is positively associated with firm performance (β = 0.188, p < 0.001). Similarly, digital capability is positively associated with firm performance (β = 0.353, p < 0.001). Thus, Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 are supported. It appears that firm performance is positively associated with CSR-based differentiation strategy at the product level (β = 0.356, p < 0.001), and positively associated with CSR-based differentiation strategy at the firm level (β = 0.318, p < 0.001). Thus, Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4 are supported.

Table 9.

PLS coefficient path analysis.

Hypothesized Path	Path Coefficient	Standard Deviation	T Statistics	P Values	2.50%	97.50%	VIF
H1. CC ->FP	0.188	0.053	3.545	0.000	0.075	0.279	1.046
H2. DC ->FP	0.353	0.047	7.509	0.000	0.255	0.443	1.046
H3. FP ->CSF	0.318	0.047	6.770	0.000	0.224	0.401	1.000
H4. FP ->CSP	0.356	0.044	7.997	0.000	0.260	0.434	1.000

Note. CC = Creative capability; DC = Digital Capability; FP= Firm Performance; CSP = Corporate Social Responsibility at Product-level; CSF = Corporate Social Responsibility at Firm-level.

In connection to the utilization of digital platforms, we also observe that the R-square value of firm performance is 18.3%, which implies that creative capability and digital capability value account for 18.3% of the variance in firm performance. The R-square value of the CSR firm-level is 10.0% and the CSR product-level is 12.4%, which demonstrates that firm performance value accounts for 10.0% of the variance in the CSR firm level and 12.4% of the variance in the CSR product-level.

3.3.4. Mediation effects

Firm performance was postulated to mediate the relationship between Digital Capability or Creative Capability and CSR. To check full mediation, the total effect between Digital Capability/Creative Capability and CSR was tested without considering other interactions. It was found that the total effect was significant between Digital Capability/Creative Capability and CSR (p < 0.01). The proposed model was organized to be tested with four main constructs. Mediation analysis indicated that DC had a positive effect on CSR only through the mediation role of firm performance. A mediation test was conducted to prove the mediation effect and whether it was statistically significant (Baron & Kenny, 1986). According to Table 10, the mediation test result indicated that there is a significant (p < 0.01) support for the mediation effect, indicating that FP serves a mediating role in the relationship between Digital Capability/Creative Capability and CSR. Evidently, Digital Capability/Creative Capability is noted to be an important strategic antecedent to creating a superior CSR strategy at both the firm level and product level.

Table 10.

PLS coefficient path analysis.

Indirect Paths	Path Coefficient	Standard Deviation	T Statistics	P Values	2.50%	97.50%
DC ->FP ->CSP	0.126	0.026	4.880	0.000	0.074	0.179
CC ->FP ->CSF	0.060	0.023	2.617	0.009	0.022	0.107
CC ->FP ->CSP	0.067	0.024	2.780	0.006	0.026	0.119
DC ->FP ->CSF	0.112	0.023	4.882	0.000	0.071	0.159

4. Discussion and conclusion

4.1. Discussion

This study attempted to understand how a firm's internal capabilities, such as technological and creative capabilities, affect its performance, and then to determine how a firm's performance affects its CSR. This research stands out for several reasons. To begin with, it adds to the discipline's understanding of the success implications of creative capability. Even though the creative capability is often thought to generate a positive consequence on firm performance, we have yet to establish any relationship between creative capability and firm performance. The outcomes suggest that creativity does not always guarantee performance, which is in line with the discoveries of many studies that show that creativity or newly developed knowledge does not always lead to firm performance [9]. Hence, scholars should not assume that single effects of creative capability can lead to higher performance; instead, they should focus on a concurrent effect of creative and digital capability that has been overlooked in previous research. This current study went beyond the borders of the creative capability to uncover the dimension of the firm’s digital capability, which can lead to the firm's higher performance [106]. Firm performance toward corporate social responsibility is a function of creative and digital capability. While previous studies' literature has primarily focused on a single relationship between firm performance-CSR. However, the creative and digital capability has unintentionally been disregarded in the literature. To have a competitive advantage in the market, spotting and seizing potential chances relative to rivals is essential for firms.

Second, we address a flaw in the literature that hinders the development of theoretical comprehension of the creative capability or knowledge development capability, which adds to our DCV. Many companies demonstrate an intrinsic capability to launch their items into the worldwide market through intermediaries. Relationships with capable external experts and partners would help to address resource constraints and capability inadequacy (Hutchinson & Quinn, 2012). In particular, the IT-supported business networks would develop and manage the network, resolve any technical operation issues, and learn about s' virtual experiences to understand their preferences and positive behavior. Logistics outsources and services might increase client value by providing quick delivery and back-end assistance. Thus, firms become CSR-differentiated as a result of competition-specific factors. International competition necessitates that businesses efficiently embrace technology, adapt, and cooperate in their volatile international environment [123]. Languages, cross-border virtual presences, unique procedures, brand awareness, and differentiations are among the challenges of cross-national coordination [124].

Third, this current research empirically investigates the CSR framework which organizes the existent literature's fundamental dimensions, identifies knowledge gaps, and creates the digital capability notions that complete the DCV matrix in a single article. The DCV was created to examine how companies gain consecutive transitory advantages by efficiently reacting to subsequent environmental shocks. In contrast to the resource-based approach, which claims that businesses rely on their resources [64], the dynamic capability approach claims that firms require dynamic capabilities to attain technological and evolutionary capabilities. We look at how firms' internal capabilities, namely creative digital ies, affect firm efficiency. Thus, our findings support the idea that understanding the dynamic phenomenon requires integrating capability and digital perspectives [9]. As a result, the analysis gives the dynamic viewpoint some much-needed empirical support.

Our study contributes to revealing how firm performance can mediate the relationship between creative capability and CSR differentiation strategy. Firm efficiency can have different levels of mediating effects on the relationship between digital capability and CSR differentiation strategy. This paper elucidates the role of firm performance in affecting a firm's adoption of environmental strategy. Previous studies in Vietnam provided the causal relationship between CSR and performance. Vietnam's strong economic growth in recent years has drawn attention to social responsibility and environmental sustainability challenges. CSR is still a relatively new notion in management, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses. In order to implement CSR initiatives in compliance with international standards, managers must overcome numerous challenges. The concept of sustainable development is growing in popularity in today's business climate, and this is relevant to corporate environmental sustainability (CES). CSR is essentially seen as a component of the larger sustainability challenges. A quantitative approach has been utilized to look at the relationship between CSR and CFP in order to explore the effects of CSR and CES on company financial performance (CFP). The relationship between CSR, CES, and other factors has been verified using a qualitative method. Several helpful recommendations are offered for managers to enhance business performance and sustainable growth in Vietnam based on the findings [125]. Another CSR study looked into how foreign CEOs affected local Vietnamese companies' CSR spending. They confirmed the moderating effects of company reputation and demanding clients on the link between foreign CEO-CSR expenditure [126,127] Other CSR study explores the mediating function of CSR and green innovation (GIN) in the context of an emerging economy to reveal the relationship between green investment (GI), sustainable business performance (SBP), and green innovation (GIN). SEM firms increasingly use GI, GIN, and CSR to generate long-term and sustainable benefits [128].

The CSR literature can also be viewed from a new angle by considering CSR in the relationship with firm performance as a result instead of a causal factor. The analysis results prove that firms with sound business performance have developed their CSR activities as voluntary activities. In these cases, CSR is the objective of firms instead of an instrument for financial targets or achieving high performance. This way of thinking requires different strategic development, and thus different ways of measuring firm achievement.

4.2. Managerial implications

Our findings have a wide range of applications. Firms often assume that having the ability to create information, or creative capability, inevitably leads to better results. As a result, they put a lot of effort into improving their information-building capabilities while ignoring their ability to use them. Our findings show that the effect of creative capability on success depends on the business context. To achieve higher efficiency, companies must proactively leverage creative capability in various business settings. The positive effects of technological/digitalization, in particular, suggest that a firm's creativity helps it deal with technological turbulence, adapt quickly to technological changes, and improve its performance by redirecting competition. Firm performance is significantly impacted during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, and worldwide economic downturns. However, there are still examples of companies that can take advantage of these circumstances and achieve great results, such as Amazon and Netflix. These companies have successfully adjusted their creative and technological capabilities, making use of the advantages of digital technology development in general or digital platforms, in particular, to adapt to turbulence and achieve even greater performance than in non-crisis situations. As a result, the crisis should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a danger to these innovative firms.

The CSR efforts of firms are believed to be a result of good business performance. For example, a firm with digitalization and creativity capability may initiate projects to help the high-risk group during their stay-at-home. The CSR assists with child support service, grocery shopping, and delivering packages. Many digital solutions enable businesses to digitally gather information from COVID-19 contact individuals and transmit it to the appropriate health authorities. The digital school academy is an online teaching preparation program for teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. CSR activities operate responsibly and reduce firms' carbon footprint to save costs in the long run. Such activities, including recycling, lowering firm energy use, and lowering firm environmental effects should be more appealing to the community, customers, and investors, which means more investment cash is available in the future. Our research reveals a favorable connection between business success and CSR efforts. More precisely, more incredible performance can give a business more opportunities, incentives, and resources to execute CSR activities at both the product and firm levels. As a result, the magnitude of a firm's CSR efforts mirrors its accomplishments in business performance. When a company wishes to develop its image as a successful one, it should prioritize its CSR operations to distinguish itself from competitors. Furthermore, by differentiating its products through CSR initiatives, a company may demonstrate its success and therefore help to have more chances to gain more advantages in doing business. Besides, when CSR results are considered one of the firms' objectives instead of an instrument to achieve higher business performance, firm management methods should be revised and developed with different measurement criteria.

Higher business performance has a favorable impact on digital incentives. As a result, digital rewards are well-recognized in high-performing businesses. It is understandable, especially in the light of global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic when the digitalization era demonstrates its tremendous power in linking and helping companies from all over the world to participate and do business digitally. Firms with solid economic success recognize the critical significance of digital platforms during the global pandemic. Acknowledgment of digital platforms will, in turn, improve company attitudes and reactions toward implementing these digital platforms, which may result in increased performance for businesses. Understanding this enables companies to maximize the benefits of the digital economy in general, and digital platforms in particular. Winners in this new context will be determined by their capability to recognize the advantages of digital platforms and how to utilize them effectively, or by their ability to develop digital platforms successfully at a higher level.

4.3. Limitations and future research

The limitations of the current study must be considered by future studies. To begin with, the study was done in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which on the one hand helps us understand the relationships in crises, but on the other hand, may impact companies' recognition of digital platforms. Therefore, future research will be required to explain the results in normal settings.

First, it should be emphasized that the CSR in this study was calculated using self-reported perception measurements. As a result, the study cannot exclude the potential of over or under-evaluation of the devotion to CSR by current respondents. However, assessing clients' opinions might be a methodologically sound alternative, collecting data on clients' and global stakeholders' perceptions of CSR worldwide would have been difficult. Furthermore, exporters' personal views are crucial to perceiving their strategies [129], and their effect on stakeholder perceptions of their companies [130].

Second, while the authors made a great effort in establishing the CSR measures, authors are aware of the new challenges this current study entails because intuition-based measures for use in the digital-based exporting industries are unique and will need further development.

Finally, the findings of this study may be impacted by the features unique to Vietnamese and several international businesses, and their countries' economic specialties. Future research should put the findings of this study to the test in a variety of contexts.

Production Notes

Author contribution statement

My-Trinh Bui: 1 - Conceived and designed the experiments, 2 - Performed the experiments, 3 - Analyzed and interpreted the data, 4 - Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data, 5 - Wrote the paper.

Huong-Linh Le: 1 - Conceived and designed the experiments, 2 - Performed the experiments, 3 - Analyzed and interpreted the data, 4 - Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data, 5 - Wrote the paper.

Funding statement

This research is funded by International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU-IS) under project number CS.NNC/2021-02.

Data availability statement

The data that has been used is confidential.

Declaration of interest’s statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.