Breaking the Constraint Loop in B2G Environmental Services: Marketing Capabilities, Digital Conversion, and Cash-Cycle conflicts

Renhua  Lv; Kenneth Paul  Charman; Javier Alfonso  Rodríguez Escobar

doi:10.63029/hmysj435

Authors

Renhua Lv Paneuropean University, Prague Author
Kenneth Paul Charman CamEd business school Author
Javier Alfonso Rodríguez Escobar European University Miguel de Cervantes Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63029/hmysj435

Keywords:

environmental services, sustainability-oriented marketing, B2G procurement, marketing capabilities, digital conversion, value-based selling, China

Abstract

Environmental services increasingly operate in sustainability-critical B2G and B2B markets shaped by tender competition, high accountability, and long payment cycles. Yet little is known about how procurement rules, legitimacy barriers, and cash-cycle frictions affect marketing capability development in such settings. This study examines a regional environmental service provider in China through a mixed-method single-case design combining interviews, archival records, a client survey, expert validation. The findings reveal a constraint transmission mechanism in which procurement price pressure and delayed payments suppress discretionary investment, weakening digital conversion, customer management, and solution/value articulation capabilities. These deficits reduce differentiation and constrain cross-regional legitimacy transfer. The study contributes a constraint-sensitive marketing capability framework and offers implications for legitimacy transfer, enterprise customer development, and digital conversion.

Author Biographies

Renhua Lv, Paneuropean University, Prague

Renhua Lv is General Manager of Hunan US-China Environment Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. and a senior practitioner in urban services, property management, and integrated city operations. He holds a master’s degree from the Paneuropean University in Prague, has more than 20 years of experience across the full urban services and property-management value chain, and has spent over 15 years focusing on property services, subsidiary group management and control, strategic planning, multi-business coordination, and operational innovation. His research at CEIBA Business School reflects on his experience across commercial, residential, office, municipal, landscaping, and water-treatment projects, as well as his role in promoting digital transformation, new-energy equipment applications, and integrated urban environmental-service models.
Kenneth Paul Charman, CamEd business school

Ken Charman has a first degree in Economic and Agricultural Economics from Nottingham University (1983), and an MBA (1991) and PhD (1998) in international business from London Business School. He started his career in the corporate world in London with a major international oil company and then consulting firm, after which he took an MBA at London Business School, and then a PhD in Economics (International Business), completing his thesis on International Joint Ventures in Kazakhstan. He was instrumental is setting up the first international business school in Central Asia, in Almaty in the early 1990s, completed his PhD with primary data from firms in Kazakhstan, and worked in Kazakhstan and all other Central Asian States managing technical assistance and development projects, primarily for EuropeAid and for other international development agencies. He was professor at Kazakh British Technical University in Almaty in 2012-2018 before moving to his current position of professor at CamEd Business School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2018. He has since completed several publications in his area of research interests of business strategy, management, and economic development. He co-founded and leads the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the Microeconomics of Competitiveness Network, established by Prof. Michael Porter, and is active in promoting business education across the Asia-Pacific Region.
Javier Alfonso Rodríguez Escobar, European University Miguel de Cervantes

Javier Alfonso Rodríguez Escobar is a professor at Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes (UEMC), where he is affiliated with the Department of Social Sciences. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Santo Tomás in Colombia and a PhD in Economics and Business Sciences from the University of Salamanca in Spain. With around 15 years of professional experience in the public and private sectors and more than a decade of university teaching experience, he has also held a range of academic management and leadership roles. His research and teaching focus on operations management, strategic change, quality management, supply chain management, innovation, and strategic alignment.

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