When stakeholder orientations matter: Modelling employee orientation, shareholder orientation and supply chain orientation as necessary and sufficient conditions for firm performance

Businesses operate in an increasingly dynamic environment requiring that they strike a delicate, healthy, and equitable balance among the interests of their numerous stakeholders. This study examined how employee orientation and shareholder orientation influence supply chain orientation and how employee orientation, shareholder orientation, and supply chain orientation influence firm performance. The study used a sample of 265 respondents and applied both linear and triangular data analysis techniques in Partial-Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) to examine how employee orientation, shareholder orientation, and supply chain orientation influence the performance of oil marketing companies (OMCs) in Ghana. The PLS-SEM results revealed that employee orientation and shareholder orientation are significant predictors of supply chain orientation. The NCA results revealed that employee orientation is the most important for supply chain orientation. Also, from the PLS-SEM results, employee orientation and supply chain orientation predict firm performance, but shareholder orientation does not. However, the NCA results suggest that all three orientations are necessary for firm performance and highlight supply chain orientation as the most important for firm performance. This study is the first to examine how employee orientation and shareholder orientation influence supply chain orientation, besides how the three orientations influence firm performance from both sufficiency and necessity theory perspectives. The study also uncovers supply chain orientation as an underlying process through which employee and shareholder orientation enhances firm performance.